illlllli  llillM;^;^^^ 


,1             11 

111    ii 

ANTHROPOLOGY  LIBBARY 


WILLIAM    DILLER    MATTHEW 


GIFT   OF 
Prof,    V/.D.    I/Iatthew 


ORIGIN  AND  ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


BY 


G.   FREDERICK  WRIGHT 
D.D.,LL.D.,  F.G.S.A. 

Author   of    '*The    Logic    of    Christian    Fvidences.' 
Scientific  Aspects    of    Christian  "KviileMces,' *',  / 
''  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America,"    "  Ma^n    , 
and    the    Glacial     Period/'      * 'Asiatic  •  •^    ' 
Russia,"    ''Scientific   Confirma- 
tions of   Old  Testament 
History,"    etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


OBERLIN,  OHIO,  U.  S.  A. 
BIBLIOTHECA  SACRA  COMPANY 

1912 


COPYRIGHTED     1912     BY 
BIBLIOTHECA    SACRA    COMPANY 


THE  NEWS  PRINTING  CO.,  OBERLIN,  OHIO 


To 

JfroffBHor  iFrrbmr  Hlarb  J^utuam 

Honorary  Curator  of  Peabody  Museum,  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, in  recognition  of  his  invaluable  service  to  Amer- 
ican Archaeology  and  of   the  great  personal 
stimulus  afforded  by  his  encourage- 
ment even  when  not  endors- 
ing all  the    author's 
.  conclusions, 

This  volume  is  affectionately  dedicated 


730288 


PREFACE 

I  NEED  make  no  apology  for  the  space  given  in  this 
volume  to  a  fresh  presentation  of  the  facts  of  the 
Glacial  epoch,  for  they  continue  to  be  the  center 
about  which  the  most  important  evidence  of  the  an- 
tiquity of  man  gathers.  Besides,  as  it  has  been  the 
subject  of  my  special  study  for  forty  years,  new 
aspects  of  its  bearing  on  the  question  at  issue  are  con- 
stantly  forcing  themselves   upon   my   attention. 

While  I  cannot  speak  with  equal  authority  upon 
the  other  lines  of  evidence  along  which  we  reach  con- 
clusions relating  to  prehistoric  times,  I  think  I  have 
followed  them  sufficiently  to  reach  conclusions  that 
are  probably  correct,  or,  at  any  rate,  so  nearly  so  that 
they  cannot  be  altogether  ignored  by  those  who  think 
it  worth  while  to  make  a  comprehensive  study  of  the 
subject. 

Upon  one  point  I  would  lay  special  emphasis,  that 
is,  the  importance  of  giving  just  weight  to  the  evidence 
presented  of  the  occurrence  of  particular  facts.  Ap- 
parently, many  experts  in  narrow  lines  of  investiga- 
tion are  lamentably  deficient  in  abilitv^  to  appreciate 
the  evidence  with  which  ordinarily  we  have  to  be 
content  in  the  establishment  of  particular  facts.  Many 
experts  assume  that  when  a  discovery  cannot  be  du- 
plicated it  is  unworthy  of  attention,  no  matter  how 
well  it  may  be  authenticated  by  evidence  such  as  sat- 


viii  Preface 

isfies  In  all  ordinary  affairs.  As  instances  we  may 
adduce  the  discovery  of  the  Nampa  figurine  detailed 
on  pages  265  to  272,  and  of  the  Newcomerstown 
implement  detailed  on  pages  226  and  228.  The  gen- 
tlemen endorsing  these  discoveries  form  a  jury  un- 
excelled in  capacity  for  judging  evidence,  and  in 
opportunity  for  deciding  on  the  sufficiency  of  that 
on  which  their  conclusions  were  based.  Furthermore, 
the  circumstantial  evidence  supporting  their  conclu- 
sions is  ample  and  convincing.  To  ignore  such  testi- 
mony because  others  have  not  found  similar  things 
in  the  same  place  is  not  creditable  to  the  pretentions 
to  scientific  knowledge  made  by  those  who  do  it. 
Again,  we  are  bound  to  say  plainly  that  the  habit 
which  many  anthropologists  have  of  ruling  out  all 
evidence  which  does  not  support  some  special  theory 
of  development  is  unworthy  of  scientific  investigators. 
All  the  facts  must  be  faced  and  be  permitted  to  take 
their  place  in   the  theories  which  we  promulgate. 

Unfortunately  there  are  some  who  will  attribute  to 
theological  prepossessions  the  moderate  estimates  which 
we  have  made  of  the  antiquity  of  man.  With  more 
reason  we  might  attribute  to  "  anti-theological  "  pre- 
possessions, the  extreme  estimates  of  man's  antiquity 
which  are  recklessly  made  by  many  with  little  regard 
to  the  facts  in  the  case.  We  can  only  ask  for  a  can- 
did and  careful  consideration  of  the  facts  which  are 
here  presented  in  detail,  and  to  the  inferences  drawn 
from  them. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  acknowledge  special  indebt- 


Preface  \\ 

edness  to  Dr.  Herbert  W.  Ma<z;oun  for  suggestions 
relatiii<z;  to  the  chapter  on  language,  and  to  Dr.  Mel- 
vin  G.  Kyle  relating  to  the  archaeology  of  Egypt  and 
Babylonia. 

G.  Frederick  Wright. 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  August,   191 2. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  I 
Methods   of   Scientific  Approacli  i 

The  solar  system  not  eternal  —  Limitations  to  the 
possible  existence  of  life  en  the  earth  —  The  moon 
not  more  than  one  hundred  million  years  old  — 
Life  not  possible  on  the  earth  fifty  million  years 
ago  —  Probably  limited  to  twenty-four  million 
years  —  Post-Tertiary  time  relatively  very  short  — 
Lines  of  positive  evidence  —  Written  history  — 
Archaeological  evidence  —  Ethnological  evidence  — 
High  mental  capacity  of  prehistoric  man  —  Incor- 
rect theory  of  uniformitarianism  —  Evolution  in- 
cludes catastrophes  —  Sundry  geological  catastro- 
phes—  The  Glacial  epoch  a  catastrophe  —  Destruc- 
tion of  species  connected  with  it  —  No  royal  road 
to   conclusions    concerning    man's    antiquity. 

Chapter  II 
The    Historical    Evidence  28 

General  considerations  —  Antiquity  of  Babylonian 
civilization  —  Of  Egjptian  civilization — Of  civil- 
ization   in    Central    Asia  —  Concluding    remarks. 

Chapter   III 

The   Linguistic  Argument  71 

Language  already  well  developed  six  or  seven 
thousand  years  ago  —  The  inflectional  languages 
—  The  monosyllabic  languages  —  The  agglutinative 
languages  —  Antiquity  of  the  Aryan  languages  — 
Possible    rate   of   linguistic   development. 


xii  Contents 

Chapter  IV 
Origin   of   the   Races   of  Europe  102 

Historical  evidence  gives  little  help  in  untangling 
the  problem  —  The  stone  age  —  The  complexion  of 
the  races  —  The  skulls  —  The  Cro-Magnon  race 
—  The  Basques  —  The  Slavs  —  Mental  and  artis- 
tic ability  of  the  neolithic  race. 

Chapter  V 
The  Origin   and   Antiquity  of  the  American  Indian  128 

No  written  records  from  which  to  reconstruct  the 
history  —  Their  language,  culture,  and  customs  — 
Their  mode  of  reckoning  blood  relationship  — 
Probable  lines  of  migration  from  Asia,  and  in 
America  —  The  Mound  Builders  —  Antiquity  of 
the   Indian   race. 

Chapter  VI 
Significance  of  the   Glacial   Epoch  157 

It  establishes  the  antiquity  of  palaeolithic  man  — 
Extent  in  Europe  —  Extent  in  America  —  Effect  on 
drainage — ^Effect  on  land  levels  —  Date  —  Rate  of 
the  withdrawal  of  the  ice  —  The  length  of  the 
epoch  —  The  epoch  in  South  America. 

Chapter  VII 
Man   in  the   Glacial   Epoch  218 

Gravel  terraces  of  the  Glacial  epoch  —  Implements 
in  the  terrace  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey  —  Discover- 
ies of  Dr.  Abbott  and  Mr.  Volk  confirmed  —  The 
Newcomerstown  implement — Discoveries  at  Little 
Falls,  Minnesota  —  Skeletons  below  the  loess  of 
Lansing,  Kansas  —  Water  action  in  the  deposition 
of   loess  —  Age  of   the   Missouri   loess  —  Human    re- 


Contents  xiii 

mains  in  the  loess  near  Omaha,  Nebraska  —  Prim- 
itive condition  of  glacial  man  in  America  —  lie 
probably  succumbed  amid  the  catastrophes  which 
closed  the  epoch  —  Extent  of  these  catastrophes  — 
Probably  an  emigrant  from  Asia  —  Lines  of  mi- 
gration from  the  western  coast  of  America  — 
Changes  of  land  level  accompanying  the  Glacial 
epoch  —  Extent  of  the  floods  connected  with  the 
close  of  the  Glacial  epoch  —  Glacial  man  in  South 
America. 

Chapter   VIII 
Man   and  the  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast  248 

Extent  of  these  lava  beds  —  Period  of  their  deposi- 
tion—  Influence  upon  the  drainage  —  Formation  of 
Table  Mountain,  California  —  Human  remains  dis- 
covered underneath  it  —  Evidence  collected  by  Pro- 
fessor Whitney  —  By  Professor  Wright  —  By  Mt. 
George  F.  Becker  —  By  Mr.  J.  F.  Kemp  —  Final 
decision  regarding  the  Calaveras  skull  —  The 
Nampa  figurine  —  Comparison  with  the  Venus  im- 
pudica  from  a  prehistoric  cavern  in  France  —  De- 
tails of  the  discovery — ^Extent  and  age  of  the  lava 
flows  in  Idaho  —  Debacle  connected  with  the  burst- 
ing of  Lake  Bonneville  —  Ample  explanation  of  the 
deposits  at  Nampa  —  Complicated  problems  of  ero- 
sion in  the  mountains  of  Central  California  —  Late 
date  of  the  lava  flows  in  that  region  —  Stage  of  the 
development  of  prehistoric  man  on  the  Pacific 
Coast. 

Chapter   IX 

Remains   of    Glacial    Man    in    Europe  290 

Evidence   not  so  clear   as   in  America  —  Remains   in 

France  —  In      England  —  In      Germany  —  In      Bel- 


xiv  Contents 

gium  —  In     Russia  —  In     Siberia  —  In    Switzerland 

—  Erroneous  interpretation  by  early  investigators  in 
the  Somme  —  Enlargement  of  the  land  areas  of 
Europe  during  the  glacial  elevation  —  Increased 
facilities  for  migration  cf  man  and  animals  —  Lo- 
cal origin  of  the  European  gravels  —  Uncertain- 
ties of  the   rate  of   accumulation  —  Penck's   error   in 

_.  estimating  length  of  glacial  episodes  —  Rapidity  of 
changes  in  the  Alaskan  glaciers  —  Cave  man  in 
England  —  In  Germany  —  In  Belgium  —  In  France 
— Character  of  the  oldest  skeletons  —  Classifica- 
tion cf  prehistoric  races  —  Prehistoric  man  com- 
pared with  modern  races  —  Prehistoric  art  —  Ani- 
mals  associated   with   prehistoric   man   in   Europe. 

Chapter  X 
Supposed   Evidence   of   Tertiary   Man  334 

Importance  of  the  question  —  Discoveries  of  Abbe 
Bourgeois  at  Thenay  —  Of  M.  Ribeiro  in  the  Ta- 
gus  Valley  —  Of  Rames  in  Auvergne  —  Of  Harri- 
son and  Prestwich  in  the  valley  of  the  Thames  — 
Of  Rutot  in  Belgium  —  Artificial  character  of 
eoliths   disproved  by  Warren,   Commont,   and   Boule 

—  The   existence    of   Tertiary   man    "not    proven." 

Chapter  XI 

Glacial    Man    in   Central    Asia  .  343 

Distribution  cf  species   in   the   Northern   Hemisphere 

—  Former  land  connection  between  North  Amer- 
ica, Asia,  and  Europe  —  Geographical  effects  of 
Pliocene  land  elevation  —  Migration  of  Pliocene 
species  —  Most  highly  specialized  animals  origin- 
ated in  Southern  Asia — 'Many  lines  of  evidence 
pointing  to  Southern  Asia  as  the  place  of  man's 
origin —  Evidence    of    language  —  Of    ethnology  — 


Contents  XV 

Importance  of  the  irrigated   regions  of  Central  Asia 

—  Former  glaciers  in  the  mountains  of  Central 
Asia  —  Man    and    the    mammoth    in    Northern    Asia 

—  The  Extinction  of  the  mammoth  —  Enlargement 
of  the  habitable  areas  cf  Central  Asia  during  the 
Glacial  epoch  —  Contraction  of  the  area  during  the 
decline  of  the  epoch  —  This  correlated  with  the 
opening  of  Northern  Europe  and  America  during 
the  withdrawal  of  glacial  ice  —  Favorable  climatic 
conditions  in  Central  Asia  during  the  Glacial 
epoch. 

Chapter   XII 

The   Physiological   Argument  37^ 

Unity  cf  the  human  race  now  generally  acknowl- 
edged—  Possible  rapidity  of  physiological  changes 
effected  by  natural  selection  —  Darwinism  not  a 
theory  of  inevitable  upward  progression  —  Man's 
mental  powers  predominant  over  physical  condi- 
tions—  Classification  of  man  with  the  Quadru- 
mana — Anatomical  resemblances  —  Brain  capacity 
of  man  and  apes  —  Relative  anatomical  rank  of 
man  —  Striking  differences  between  man  and  the 
apes  —  No  connecting  link  between  man  and  apes 
yet  found  —  Pithecanthropus  erectus  not  a  connect- 
ing link  —  Brain  capacity  of  prehistoric  skulls  equal 
to  that  of  some  races  and  highly  developed  indi- 
viduals of  the  present  age  —  Rate  at  which  phys- 
iological changes  may  take  place  under  the  opera- 
tion of  natural  selection  —  Man's  production  must 
have  been  by  a  paroxysmal  process  —  Man  some- 
thing more  than   a   mere   product  of  nature. 

Chapter  XIII 

The   Psychological    Argument  406 

Science    cannot    solve    the    mvsterv    of    man's    origin 


xvl  Contents 

—  The  processes  of  evolution  demand  a  Creator  — 
A  mechanical  theory  of  the  universe  impossible  — 
The  theory  of  divine  immanency  incomplete  —  The 
Creator's  supervision  of  nature  —  Divine  interven- 
tion necessary  to  supplement  the  mechanical  the- 
ory— 'Spontaneous  generation  inconceivable  —  The 
gap  between  plant  life  and  animal  life  naturally 
impassable — Man's  capacities  compared  with  these 
of  animals  —  Limitations  of  animal  intelligence  — 
Marvellous  range  of  man's  mental  capacity  — 
Man's  mental  and  moral  faculties  divine  gifts 
rather  than  natural  products  —  Progressive  capa- 
bility of  the  lowest  races  —  The  progress  of  civil- 
ization largely  due  to  the  rise  of  leaders  of  great 
capacity  —  Theological  difficulties  similar  to  those 
of  science. 

Chapter   XIV 

The  Biblical   Scheme  437 

Science  cannot  ignore  the  Biblical  documents  —  But 
the  language  of  the  documents  must  be  properly 
interpreted  —  Professor  William  Henry  Green's 
discussion  of  Biblical  chronology  —  The  .genealog- 
ical tables  in  Genesis  not  designed  to  teach  chron- 
ology—  Nothing  in  Biblical  chronology  to  prevent 
any  extension  of  prehistoric  chronology  of  which 
there  is  proper  evidence  —  The  remarkable  table 
of  nations  in  Genesis  x.  —  Influence  of  the  Glacial 
epoch  on  the  conditions  of  prehistoric  man  in  Asia. 

Chapter   XV 

Summary    and    Conclusion  477 

Exaggerated    estimates   of    geological    time    by   Lyell 

and    Darwin — Moderate    estimates    of    George    H. 

Darwin,    Wallace,    and    Walcott  —  Small    ratios    of 


Con  tints  xvii 

Tertiary  and  Post-Tertiary  time  —  Activity  of 
present  geological  forces  —  Tendency  of  species  to 
increase  in  geometrical  ratio  —  Tremendous  re- 
sults cf  the  Malthusian  law  in  prehistoric  times  — 
Changes  of  land  levels  in  the  transition  from  Ter- 
tiary to  Post-Tertiary  time  —  Effect  of  the  accu- 
mulation of  ice  on  these  changes  —  Present  rate  of 
changes  in  land  levels  —  Present  rate  of  glacial 
movements  —  Briefness  of  post-glacial  time  —  His- 
tory begins  with  a  highly  civilized  condition  of 
man  —  Tendency  to  degeneration  —  This  counter- 
acted only  by  acceptance  of  outside  intervention  — 
Man's  origin  inconceivable  by  purely  naturalistic 
agencies. 

Appendix  497 

Implements    Deemed    to    be    of  Great    Age    from    Study 

of   the   Patinated    Surfaces  524 

Index  529 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Theatral   area,   Kncssos  32 

Map  of  Babylonia  38 

Pre-Sargonic   tablet    (4500  B.C.)  41 

Archaic  arch  of  Nippur  43 

Prehistoric  mound   in  Turkestan  60 

Prehistoric    monoliths    at    Aksur,    Abyssinia  124 

Cahokia    Mound  142 

Fort   Ancient  144 

Mound    at   Miamisburg,   Ohio  147 

Serpent    Mound,   Adams   County,   Ohio  150 

Serpent  Mound,  Warren  County,  Ohio  151 

Southern    face    of    the    Temple    of    the    Plumed  Serpent, 

Xochicalco,   Mexico  153 

Section   of    Fort   Ancient  156 
Map    showing    glaciated    areas    in    North    America    and 

Europe  161 
Preglacial  scenery  in  New  York  Harbor  169 
Land  areas  at  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  period  173 
Bird's-eye  view  of  Miuir  Glacier  in  1906,  shewing  a  re- 
cession of  seven  miles  203 
Map  showing  stages  in  the  recession  of  the  North  Amer- 
ican ice  sheet  209 
Chipped  implement  from  the  Trenton  gravels  221 
Palaeoliths  from  Newcomerstown  and  Amiens  227 
The  Nampa  image  268 
The     Venus     impudica,     from     a     prehistoric     cavern     in 

France  269 


XX 


Illustrations 


Map  of  the  Quaternary  lakes,  Bonneville  and  Lahontan  276 
Map    shewing    Pocatello,     Nampa,     and    the    valley    of 

Snake  River  277 

Esker  terrace  on  Miami  River  294 

Typical   Chellean   palasolith,   called  by  Sollas   "  boucher "  295 
Geography   of    Northwestern    Europe    in   late   Pleistocene 

age  302 

Gravel  pit  at  Mauer  307 

Side  view  of  jaw  found   at  Mauer  310 

Muir  Glacier,  Alaska  3^5 

Man  of  Spy  .  322 

Man  of  La   Chapelle   aux   Saints  329 

Mammoth  and  bison  on  walls  of  the  grotto  at  Bernifal  331 

Eolith  from  Puy  Courny  33^ 
Associated    fragments    of    flints    from    the    Thanet    sands 

of  Belle-Assize  339 
Naturally  formed   flint   flakes   from  the  Thanet   sands  of 

Belle-Assize  34' 
Horse  on  walls  of  the  grotto  at  Bernifal  342 
Mammoth  from  Siberia,  in  the  Museum  at  St.  Peters- 
burg 363 
Comparative  anatomy  of  the  Primates  382 
Pithecanthropus  erectus,  Dubois  394 
Map  of  supposed  post-glacial  submergence  in  Asia  470 
Kansas   palaeolith  527 


ORIGIN  AND  ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

CHAPTER     I. 

THE  METHODS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  APPROACH 

In  the  light  of  modern  science  it  takes  but  a  mo- 
ment's reflection  to  see  that  the  human  race  has  had 
a  limited  period  of  existence  in  the  world,  and  is 
destined  to  extinction  sometime  in  the  future.  The 
earth  may  be  compared  to  a  transcontinental  railroad 
train,  and  man  a  passenger  boarding  it  at  one  interior 
station  only  to  leave  it  at  another  far  short  of  its 
ultimate  destination. 

According  to  the  teachings  of  astronomy,  the  solar 
s)^stem  consists  of  centers  of  matter  and  force  which 
are  slowly,  but  surely,  parting  with  their  heat,  and 
tending  to  dead  uniformity  in  their  various  modes  of 
motion.  The  earth  upon  which  we  live  is  but  one  of 
these  cooling  planetary  masses,  and  has  become  fit  for 
the  habitation  of  man  only  during  recent  geological 
ages.  A  few  million  years  ago  the  heat  upon  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth  was  so  great  that  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  man  with  his  present  physical  constitu- 
tion to  have  endured  it.    A  few  million  y^ars  hence,. ar.d 


2  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  rigors  of  an  arctic  climate  will  have  settled  down 
over  all ;  for,  the  sun  is  losing  his  pristine  vigor,  and 
finally,  instead  of  being,  as  now,  a  source  of  life- 
giving  power,  will  himself  need  to  be  warmed  at  the 
fireside  of  some  longer  lived  and  more  fortunate 
luminar}^ 

The  limits  set  by  astronomers  and  physicists  to  the 
conditions  essential  to  the  existence  of  man  in  the 
world  are  not  very  definite  in  either  direction.  From 
the  rate  at  which  the  sun  is  at  the  present  time  part- 
ing with  its  heat,  many  modern  astronomers  are 
ready  to  assert  that  no  forms  of  existing  life  could 
have  been  possible  upon  the  world  20,000,000  years 
ago.  They  would  compel  us  to  bring  not  only  the 
history  of  the  human  race,  but  all  palaeontology, 
within  the  limits  of  that  period.  Indeed,  Sir  George 
H.  Darwin  maintains,  Avith  the  genius  of  his  father, 
that  it  is  not  more  than  50,000,000  or  100,000,000 
years  ago  that  the  birth  of  the  moon  took  place,  com- 
ing verily  out  of  the  ribs  of  "the  earth  (as,  in  Hebrew 
story,  Eve  is  said  to  have  come  from  man),  having 
been  thrown  ofF  from  the  rotating  mass  of  the  earth, 
as  water  is  thrown  from  a  grindstone,  by  accelerated 
centrifuoal  force.  At  {\r.-X  the  earth  and  moon  were 
in  close  proximity,  and  .their  period  of  united  rota- 
tion diJ   not  exceed   three-  .hours.      In   short,  the  earth 


The  Methods   of  Seieritifie  Apf>ro(ieh  3 

aiifl  its  satellite  loiiLi;  since  passed  through  those  stages 
of  development  wliich  we  are  now  permitted  to  wit- 
ness at  a  distance  in  the  systems  of  Jupiter  and 
Saturn. 

Of  course  at  such  a  time  organic  life  like  that 
with  which  we  are  familiar  was  entirely  out  of  the 
question.  Everything  was  in  an  incandescent  state. 
There  v.as  no  solid  earth,  and  there  was  no  water 
either  on  the  earth  or  above  it ;  but  everything  was 
in  a  molten  or  gaseous  condition.  Gradually  the  heat 
was  dissipated,  and  the  volume  of  matter  contracted, 
and  the  rotary  motion  of  both  the  earth  and  the  moon 
commenced  to  be  reduced,  until  the  present  happy 
medium  condition  of  affairs  was  reached  which  ren- 
dered organic  life  possible. 

How  life  began  upon  the  earth,  it  is  not  our 
province  to  ask.  Whether,  as  some  suppose,  it  was 
spontaneously  generated  in  the  effervescent  turmoil 
of  the  cooling  elements ;  or  whether,  as  others  have 
suggested,  it  was  brought  to  the  earth  by  the  for- 
tunate collision  with  some  more  fortunate  planet ; 
or  whether  it  was  brought  into  being  by  the  creative 
fiat  of  the  Almighty,  are  questions  which  we  will 
leave  for  other  times  and  opportunities  of  discussion. 
Here  we  will  simply  say  that  those  who  take  the  last 
alternative  certainlv  cannot  be  charged   with  choosing 


4  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  most  difficult  hypothesis.  Even^  supposable  hy- 
pothesis makes  extravagant  demands  upon  the  rea- 
soning powers  of  the  human  mind. 

In  the  present  condition  of  the  moon  we  have  an 
illustration  of  the  ultimate  condition  of  the  earth  it- 
self, when  it  shall  have  parted  with  the  most  of  its 
rotary  motion,  and,  like  the  moon  in  its  relation  to 
the  earth,  shall  continue  its  revolution  about  the  sun 
in  substantially  the  same  period  of  time  as  at  the 
present,  but  vdth  a  revolution  upon  its  axis  occupy- 
ing fifty  or  sixty  times  as  long  a  period  as  that  now 
required.  All  this  is  shown  by  the  mathematicians  to 
follow  through  the  influence  of  the  tides,  caused  by 
the  attraction  of  the  moon.  The  moon,  being  the 
smaller  body,  and  hence  more  amenable  to  retarding 
influence,  has  already  gone  through  this  phase  of  its  ex- 
perience; so  that  it  now  has  a  solar  day  equal  to  28^ 
of  our  solar  days.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that,  when 
the  earth  shall  have  made  but  a  partial  approach  to 
that  condition,  human  life  —  and  indeed  almost  every 
other  kind  of  life  —  will  become  impossible  upon  it. 
With  the  sun  alternating  a  month  above  and  a  month 
below  the  horizon,  or  indeed  a  week  below  and  a 
week  above,  everything  would  be  scorched  to  death 
at  noon  and  frozen  solid  before  morning.  But  long 
ere  this  period  arrives,  the  sun  itself  will  have  parted 


The  Methods  of  Scientific  Approach  5 

with  so  much  of  its  heat  that  even,  with  the  present 
rotary  movement  of  the  earth,  the  tijenial  currents  of 
life  must  cease  to  flow.  Taking  a  long  look  into  the 
future,  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the 
solar  system  is  running  down,  and  the  earth  is  mov- 
ing to  a  condition  of  universal  glaciation.  In  this 
vast  secular  movement,  the  post-glacial  period  is  but 
a  temporary  episode. 

Between  these  dim  horizons  it  is  evident  that  all 
forms  of  life  upon  the  earth  must  have  their  limits, 
while  human  life  is  possible  only  in  a  still  more 
transitory  stage  of  the  world's  history.  Beyond  ques- 
tion, man  has  been  one  of  the  latest  additions  to  the 
forms  of  life  inhabiting  the  world ;  and,  while  able 
to  survive  the  destruction  of  many  of  his  companions 
among  the  higher  members  of  the  animal  kingdom,  he 
must  also  disappear  long  before  the  reign  of  eternal 
winter  shall  have  set  in.  It  is  our  present  purpose 
to  bring  to  bear  upon  the  problem  of  man's  origin 
and  antiquity,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  within  moderate 
limits,  all  the  light  from  all  quarters  that  is  now 
accessible.  Leaving  the  future  of  the  race  upon  the 
earth  to  the  tender  mercies  of  philosophers  and  theo- 
logians, we  will  set  about  the  humbler  task  of  en- 
deavoring to  interpret  the  footprints  which  man,  in 
his  progress  thus  far,  has  already  left  upon  the  sands 


6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  time.  It  will  be  profitable,  however,  at  the  outset, 
to  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  field,  and  to  consider  the 
nature  of  the  evidence  upon  which  w^e  must  rely. 

The  astronomical  evidence  already  presented  dis- 
tinctly limits  our  historical  horizon,  and  brings  the 
advent  of  the  simplest  forms  of  life  down  to  a  period, 
probably  not  more  distant  than  24,000,000  years; 
while  that  of  the  higher  forms  of  life,  and  of  man, 
must  be  indefinitely  more  recent.^ 

Another  distinct  approximation  may  be  made  by 
considering  the  general  argument  and  evidence  sup- 
porting the  doctrine  of  man's  evolution  in  connection 
with,  if  not  from,  the  higher  animals  with  which  he 
is  associated.  There  are  tw^o  forms  of  evolution 
maintained  by  m.en  of  science.  The  one  assumes  a 
genetic  connection  between  man  and  the  original  form 
of  life  in  the  world.  According  to  this,  man  has 
slowly  developed  from  an  earlier  form  of  life,  and 
that,  in  turn,  from  one  earlier  still,  and  so  on,  until 
we  see  him  emerging  from  the  potencies  involved  in 
primordial  life  germs.  But  even  on  this  theor^^  which 
may  be  either  agnostic  or  theistic,  man  is  the  latest 
stage  of  that  development,  and  the  larger  part  of  the 
24,000,000  years  allotted  to  the  biologist  for  his 
forces  of  evolution  to  work  out  their  results,  must 
have   been   absorbed   in   the   preliminary  stages  of   de- 


The   Methods  of  Scientific  Approach  7 

velopment,  which  furnished  the  basis  for  its  hiu;hest 
attainments  in  the  marvellous  mental  and  moral  char- 
acteristics of  man. 

The  bearing  of  the  theory  of  evolution  upon  the 
date  of  man's  appearance  in  the  world  will  depend 
upon  our  conception  of  its  -gradualness.  If  in  our 
scheme  we  adhere  strictly  to  the  arbitrary  philosoph- 
ical postulate,  "  Nature  makes  no  leaps,  but  in  every- 
thing moves  by  infinitesimal  steps  of  progress,"  we 
might  at  once  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  man's 
antiquity  w^as  immensely  great;  for  the  gap  which 
separates  him.  from  his  nearest  allies  in  the  animal 
kingdom  is  indeed  a  wide  one.  But  on  closer  con- 
sideration, it  will  be  seen  that  no  system  of  evolution 
can  be  maintained  which  does  not  provide  for  a  rate 
of  progress  rapid  enough  to  cover  the  whole  distance 
between  protoplasm  and  the  man  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in,  probably,  24,000,000  years,  and  it  would 
not  seem  possible  to  rule  periods  of  paroxysmal  prog- 
ress entirely  out  of  the  question. 

Even  the  most  extravagant  claims  for  the  antiquity 
of  man  put  him  late  in  the  geological  development  of 
the  earth.  The  wildest  enthusiasts  would  not  place 
his  advent  earlier  than  the  middle  of  the  Tertian' 
period.  But  the  continuance  of  the  Tertiary  and 
Post-Tertiary  periods  was  not  more  than  one-sixteenth 


8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  geological  time;  so  that,  if  life  began  upon  the 
earth  24,000,000  years  ago,  the  Tertiary  period  could 
have  been  but  little  more  than  1,500,000  years  in 
duration.  According  to  the  estimates  of  Dana  and 
Winchell,  the  ratios  of  Palaeozoic,  Mesozoic,  and  Cen- 
ozoic  times  are,  respectively,  12,  3,  and  i ;  ^  while 
Professor  Henry  S.  Williams  w^ould  estimate  them 
as  15,  3,  and  i.'^  If  we  take  24,000,000,  on  Dana's 
ratio  we  should  have  18,000,000  for  Palaeozoic  time; 
4,500,000,  Mesozoic;  and  1,500,000,  Cenozoic.  Cen- 
ozoic  time  includes  the  whole  period  since  the  ap- 
pearance of  Mammalia,  beginning  with  the  Tertiary 
period.  If  man  is  limited,  as  we  think  he  is,  to  Post- 
Tertiary  time,  considerable  progress  is  made  in  our 
approximate  calculations  of  antiquity;  for,  as  plaus- 
ibly estimated  by  Warren  Upham,  Post-Tertiar}^  time 
is  not  more  than  one-fiftieth  and  perhaps  not  more 
than  one  one-hundredth  of  Tertiar}^  time,  which,  on 
the  present  basis  of  24,000,000,  would  make  the  limit 
30,000  years.  If  geological  time  is  extended  to  48,- 
000,000  years,  the  Glacial  limit  would  be  only  60,- 
000;  and  if  to  96,000,000  years,  it  would  still  be  only 
120,000.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  be  taken  as  less 
than  24,000,000,  Post-Tertiary  time  will  be  corre- 
spondingly diminished,  as  it  would  be  on  the  second 
estimate  of  Upham.* 


The  Methods  of  Scientific  A pproacli  9 

Those  who  do  not  believe  in  a  physical  bond  of 
connection  between  man  and  the  lower  species  are 
still  accredited  with  believing  that  the  Creator  has 
pursued  a  line  of  ideal  development  in  the  creation 
of  species,  corresponding  to  the  development  of  the 
physical  conditions  into  w^hich  the  species  were  from 
time  to  time  to  be  ushered.  According  to  this  class 
of  reasoners,  also,  the  date  of  man's  creation  was  late 
in  the  geological  period.  This  they  would  infer,  both 
from  the  nature  of  the  geological  development  of  the 
earth's  surface,  and  from  the  character  of  the  animals 
that  were  introduced  in  the  various  stages  of  its 
progress,  —  the  animals  and  plants  most  nearly  allied 
to  man,  and  upon  which  he  is  most  dependent,  being 
clearly  confined  to  the  later  stages  of  the  earth's  his- 
tory. 

So  far,  therefore,  in  our  reasoning,  the  general 
considerations  derived  from  both  astronomy  and  ge- 
ology will  limit  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of  the 
human  race  upon  the  earth  to  a  period,  at  the  very- 
utmost,  of  a  few  hundred  thousand,  and  probably  less 
than  100,000,  years  in  length.  With  this  general 
limitation  of  the  field,  we  will  apply  ourselves  to  the 
task  of  examining  the  more  definite  lines  of  evidence 
bearing    upon    the    question    in    hand,    dealing,    first. 


TO  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

with  the  specific  evidence  determining  a  minimum  date 
of  his  arrival.  In  doing  this  v^e  shall  consider:  (i)  the 
evidence  derived  from  ordinary  historical  documents; 
(2)  the  evidence  derived  from  linguistic  differences; 
and  (3)  the  geological  evidence.  We  shall  then  be  in 
position  to  consider  fairly  what  extension  of  time  may 
be  demanded  by  both  the  physiological  and  psycho- 
logical evidence  supposed  to  sustain  the  doctrine  of 
man's  development  from  some  lower  order  of  the 
animal  creation.  Here,  however,  it  is  important  to 
pause  a  little  to  ascertain  what  we  mean  by  some  of 
the  terms  employed.  Man  himself  needs  definition. 
What  is  the  specific  element  which  differentiates  man 
from  the  rest  of  the  animal  creation?  With  some, 
this  is  thought  to  be  the  power  of  self-consciousness 
and  of  carrying  on  sustained  processes  of  inductive 
reasoning.  With  others,  the  specific  character  of  the 
human  race  is  thought  to  be  the  use  of  articulate 
speech.  According  to  these,  the  first  grammarian  was 
the  first  man.  But  if  these  are  indeed  the  determin- 
ing elements  of  hvmianity,  some  more  specific  form 
of  manifestation  is  required  to  provide  the  evidence 
needed  to  prove  his  past  existence.  For  the  rational 
mind  can  reveal  itself  only  as  its  acts  receive  material 
embodiment.  Such  an  embodiment  is  found  most 
clearly  in  written  language,  whether  inscribed  on  the 


The  Methods  of  Scientific  Approach  i  i 

rocks,  stamped  on  clay  tablets,  or  scrawled  with  per- 
ishable pigments  upon  equally  perishable  paper. 

But  the  art  of  writing   involves  a  still  more   fun- 
damental   material    embodiment    of    thought,    namely, 
the  use  of  tools;  for  paper  and  ink  and  pen  are  ma- 
terial instruments  requiring  a  high  order  of  inventive 
genius.      One    of    the    simplest    and    most    descriptive 
definitions  of  man,  therefore,  is  "  a  tool-using  animal." 
Without  fear  of  fundamental  error,  we  may  say  that 
the  point  at  which  the  animal  begins  to  make  use  of 
tools,  and  to  combine  with  their  use  that  of  the  more 
subtle  instrument  fire,  marks  his  passage  to  manhood. 
Whether   by    evolution    or   creation,    this   step    marks 
the  real  beginning  of  a  human  race  with  all  its  tri- 
umphs over  nature.    It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that 
the  heathen  philosophers  of  Greece  and  Rome  looked 
upon    the    production    and    preservation    of    fire    as    a 
divine  gift.      But  we -find   that  primitive  man   ever>'- 
w^here   produces    it    at    will   by    friction.      Even   thus, 
however,    it   may   well   be   regarded   as   a   divine   gift, 
since    the    ingenuity    to    produce    it    can    scarcely    be 
thought  of  as  less  than  a  direct  inspiration  from  above 
So  also  in  the  use  of  tools  and  clothing  there  is  in- 
volved a  power  to  dominate  nature,  of  the  ver>'  high- 
est significance. 

Fortunately  for  science  in  these  later  days,  the  prim- 


12  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ftlve  use  of  both  tools  and  fire,  has  left  indestructible 
marks  of  man's  earliest  occupation  of  the  earth.  In 
the  caverns  to  which  primeval  man  resorted  for  pro- 
tection, both  against  the  elements  and  against  his 
enemies  of  various  sorts.,  the  fires  he  lighted  changed 
the  color  of  the  soil  upon  which  they  were  built,  and 
left  other  indelible  marks  of  man's  presence.  Rough 
stone  implements  seem  at  first  sight  indicative  of  a 
low  order  of  intelligence,  but  it  is  fortunate  for  the 
historian  of  later  times  that  early  man  was  limited  to 
the  use  of  tools  which  rust  could  not  corrupt.  For 
it  may  be  seriously  questioned,  whether  the  age  of 
iron  will  leave  any  such  permanent  records  as  are  fur- 
nished by  the  rough  stone  implements  which  primitive 
man  used  during  the  River  I^rift  period  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  which  have  been  preserved  in  the 
original  position  in  which  they  were  lost  in  the  grow- 
ing gravel  banks  of  the  Glacial  epoch. 

Nor  are  we  permitted  to  assign  too  low  a  stage  of 
development  to  those  primitive  men  who  successfully 
prevailed  over  nature  with  implements  more  primi- 
tive than  the  bow  and  the  arrow.  For  we  must  dis- 
tinguish between  the  development  of  the  individual 
and  the  development  of  the  race.  Division  of  labor 
is  a  necessary  condition  of  the  highest  progress  of  the 
race  considered   as  a  whole;   but  this  division   dooms 


The  Methods  of  Scientific  /lf>proacli  l^ 

the  lar*^er  part  of  the  race  to  a  one-sidul  and  imperfect 
development  both  of  body  and  of  mind.  Both  the 
eyes  and  the  ears  of  the  civilized  man  are  less  acute 
than  those  of  the  savage;  while  it  is  only  the  favored 
few  who  can  secure  symmetrical  physical  development 
and  broad  mental  training.  The  modern  artisan,  lim- 
ited by  his  occupation  to  spending  his  days  in  making 
the  fiftieth  part  of  a  shoe,  has  small  chance  to  become 
a  highly  developed  individual. 

We  shall  certainly  do  primitive  man  a  great  injus- 
tice if  we  measure  his  individual  advancement  by 
comparing  his  tools  with  those  which  are  turned  out 
from  a  modern  cutlery  shop.  For  to  make  a  palaeo- 
lithic implement  involves  more  individual  skill  than 
is  required  by  the  ordinary  workman  to  make  a 
watch.  The  chief  difference  in  the  product  is  that 
in  the  making  of  a  watch  we  have  the  combined  skill 
of  successive  generations  of  inventors.  Successive 
generations  had  slowly  learned  to  separate  the  iron 
from  the  ore,  and  to  temper  it  and  fashion  it  into  the 
delicate  hairspring  and  the  complicated  cogwheels  of 
the  modern  timepiece.  All  this  skill  was  a  bequest 
to  the  modern  workman.  But  the  palaeolithic  imple- 
ment was  made  by  one  man,  and  each  chip  struck  off 
from  the  original  core  of  flint  was  the  embodiment  of 
a   far-seeing   design.      Nor  did   the   production   of   the 


14  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

implement  end  the  matter  of  individual  development. 
To  get  one's  living  with  such  a  tool  would  be  beyond 
the  power  of  a  civilized  man.  Any  of  us  would  be 
slow  to  venture  into  the  presence  of  a  gigantic  ani- 
mal of  the  River  Drift  period  without  a  more  effect- 
ive weapon  of  attack  than  was  furnished  by  the  stone 
hatchet  of  the  River  Drift  man. 

In  endeavoring,  as  we  shall  be  compelled  to  do, 
to  arrive  at  conclusions  concerning  the  antiquity  of 
man  by  the  use  of  circumstantial  evidence,  we  shall 
at  the  outset  meet  a  serious  difficulty  in  fixing  upon 
a  standard  of  progress  by  which  to  measure  the  rate 
of  the  succession  of  events.  Whether  in  geology,  biol- 
ogy, or  in  history,  we  shall  be  confronted  with  the 
questions  which  separate  both  the  men  of  science  and 
the  historians  into  three  classes,  according  as  they 
adopt  a  theory  of  uniformitarianism,  catastrophism,  or 
evolutionism.  As  the  question  of  man's  antiquity  is 
partly  historical,  partly  geological,  and  partly  biolog- 
ical, it  is  essential  at  the  outset,  to  form  an  opinion 
concerning  the  constancy  and  regularity  of  the  causes 
at  work  to  produce  the  changes  which  we  see  to  be 
in  progress. 

In  geology  before  the  publication  (in  1830)  of 
Sir  Charles  Lyell's  epoch-making  "  Principles  of  Ge- 


The  Methods  of  Scientific  Apf^romh  i5 

ologjs"  the  accepted  theory  of  progress  had  been  that 
of  catastrophism.     It  was  supposed  that  all  the  great 
mountain  systems  of  the  world  had  been  upheaved  by 
sudden    impulses    in    brief    periods   of    time;    that    all 
mountain    gorges    had    been    formed   by    instantaneous 
displays    of    force,    suddenly    rending    the    mountains 
asunder,  and  that  all  the  vast  thicknesses  of  sediment 
which  characterize  geological  periods  had  been  depos- 
ited by  floods  and  tidal  waves  with  a  rapidity  defying 
all  calculation.     At  every  point  this  theory  of  changes 
was    "  prodigal    of    force    and    parsimonious   of   time." 
The  words  of  Scripture  were  applied  in  a  literal  sense, 
and  the  mountains  w^ere  made  to  skip  like  rams,  and 
the  little  hills  like  lambs;  and  geological   forces,  like 
leviathan,  were  thought  to  have  made  the  sea  boil  like 
a  pot  continually. 

But  with  Lyell  came  in  the  spirit  of  quietism.  The 
present  was  set  up  as  the  perfect  standard  of  the  past, 
and  an  effort  was  made  to  explain  all  geological  phe- 
nomena by  the  action  of  forces  of  the  same  intensity 
with  those  which  are  known  to  be  productive  of  ex- 
isting geological  changes.  This  hypothesis,  as  pushed 
by  many  of  its  advocates,  was  justly  open  to  the  taunt 
of  being  ''  prodigal  of  time  and  parsimonious  of 
force,"  and  was  not  inaptly  dubbed  "  the  Homeo- 
pathic theory  of  dynamics." 


1 6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

With  our  present  survey  of  facts,  however,  the 
strict  doctrine  of  uniformitarianism  seems  little  less 
than  absurd ;  for  reallj'  there  is  no  such  thing  as  exact 
uniformity  in  nature.  There  is  continuity ;  there  is 
connection  of  cause  and  effect ;  but  there  is  always 
progress  and  development;  and,  in  justice  to  Sir 
Charles  Lyell,  it  should  be  said,  that  his  doctrine  of 
uniformitarianism,  by  which  he  made  the  forces  of 
the  present  a  measure  of  the  geological  activities  of 
the  past,  has  been  much  misunderstood.  Sir  Charles 
Lyell's  "  present  time  "  was  not  the  present  of  to- 
day, nor  of  a  single  centur}^  nor. indeed  of  a  millen- 
nium: his  "present"  comprehended  a  w^hole  cycle  of 
observation  and  inference.  His  work  consisted  not 
so  much  in  diminishing  our  conception  of  the  intensity 
of  past  geological  forces,  as  of  increasing  our  concep- 
tion of  the  intensity  of  present  geological  agencies. 
His  great  book  is  largely  a  record  of  earthquakes  and 
volcanic  eruptions  and  of  the  knov/n  changes  of  level 
in  continents  and  islands,  joined  with  a  vivid  presen- 
tation of  the  vast  effects  finally  produced  by  the  cumu- 
lative action  of  slow  causes  operating  through  long 
periods  of  time. 

The  work  of  Lyell  in  checking  crude  theories  of 
catastrophisni  has  led  to  a  more  reasonable  theory, 
comprehended    in    the    single    but    verv    elastic    word 


The  MeihoJs  of  Scientific  Jpprodcli  i? 

•'  evolution."      The    :j;eolo<^ists    of    to-day    are    neither 
catastr()phist>    nor    iiniformitarians,    hut    evohitionists. 
When    we   say    that    they    are   evolutionists,    however, 
we  do  not   mean   that   they   have  adopted   a  material- 
istic  theory   of  the   universe,   but  that,   in   their  study 
of    the    facts    of    nature,    of    the    proi2;ress   of    natural 
events,  and  of  the  interaction  of  natural  causes,  they 
find   that  every  combination  of  natural   forces  is  sub- 
ject   to    change;    that,    while    there    is    continuity    of 
development,    there    is   never    uniformity;   that    to-day 
is  not  as  yesterday,   and   that  they  have  no   reason  to 
expect    that    to-morrow    will    be    exactly    like    to-day. 
Still,  within  narrow  limits  of  time,  they  can,  from  a 
study  of  the  present,   forecast   with   reasonable  proba- 
bility a  considerable  portion  of  the  future,   and  infer 
the   condition    of    a   considerable   portion   of   the    past. 
But    they    cannot    fail    to    see    that    the    slow    moving; 
causes  which   reveal   themselves  in   the  phenomena  of 
to-day  by  no  means  disclose  in  those  phenomena  their 
full    power.      The   wise    evolutionist    leaves    the    field 
open   for  catastrophes,   both    those   which   are  calcula- 
^  ble   and   those   which   are   incalculable,   both   seen   and 
unseen.      For   example,    the    strain    of    natural    forces 
upon   the   crust   of   the   earth   is   like   the   action   of   a 
force  which  bends  a  bow.     Up  to  a  certain  linu't,  ad- 
ditional  increments   of  force  mav  be   applied   without 


1 8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  production  of  a  catastrophe;  but  there  comes  a 
point  when  the  limit  of  resistance  is  reached,  and  the 
bow  must  snap,  and  the  strata  of  the  earth  must  be 
ruptured,  and  in  each  a  catastrophe  is  produced. 

There  is  no  end  to  illustrations  which  might  be  ad- 
duced to  show  that  the  course  of  nature  never  runs 
smoothly  for  any  great  length  of  time.  The  forces 
of  nature  are,  indeed,  evolving,  but  it  is  by  a  parox- 
ysmal process.  The  elder  Agassiz  when  he  died  was 
preparing  for  the  press  a  series  of  articles  in  which 
he  promised  to  show,  first,  that  the  geological  record 
of  America  was  more  nearly  perfect  than  that  found 
anj^where  else  in  the  world;  and,  secondly,  that  it 
recorded  a  series  of  catastrophes  which  were  so  de- 
structive of  life  as  to  necessitate  as  many  creative  in- 
terventions for  the  living  species  as  there  had  been 
catastrophes.  It  is  the  general  opinion  of  geologists 
that  he  exaggerated  the  suddenness  of  these  catastro- 
phes and  the  completeness  of  the  destruction  of  life 
in  connection  with  them.  But  the  best  informed 
geologists  maintain  with  increasing  confidence  that 
the  siow  development  of  the  geological  conditions  of 
the  plains  and  mountains  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River  has  been  marked  by  successive  periods  or  epochs 
of  rapid  changes  both  in  the  geological  conditions  and 
in  the  forms  of  life  dependent  upon  them. 


Till'   Methods  of  Sr'nntific  Apl^rodch  i <; 

In  the  \\or(ls  of  Le  Coiitc,  \\hcn  spcakinjj;  of  the 
transition  from  the  Silurian  to  the  Devonian  forma- 
tion, "  it  is  impossible  to  overlook  the  compdrative 
suddenness  of  the  appearance  of  a  new  class  (fishes) 
and  a  new  department  (Vertebrates)  of  the  animal 
kingdom.  Observe  that  at  the  horizon  of  appearance 
in  the  uppermost  Silurian  there  is  no  apparent  break 
in  the  strata,  and  therefore  no  evidence  of  lost 
record;  and  yet  the  advance  is  immense.  It  is  im- 
possible to  account  for  this,  unless  we  admit  parox- 
ysms of  more  rapid  movement  of  evolution  —  unless 
we  admit  that  when  conditions  are  favorable  and  the 
time  is  ripe  for  a  particular  change,  it  takes  place 
with  exceptional  rapidity,  perhaps  in  a  few  genera- 
tions." Again,  the  Permian  formation  represents  a 
period  of  transition  between  the  Palaeozoic  and  the 
ATesozoic  system  of  rocks.  The  greatest  change  of 
organisms  in  the  whole  histon-  of  the  earth  appar- 
ently took  place  in  the  midst  of  the  conformable  strata 
of  this  period.  From  this  he  reasons,  as  before,  that 
the  transition  must  have  been  comparatively  rapid. 
Again,  between  the  Alesozoic  era,  or  age  of  reptiles, 
and  the  Cenozoic,  or  age  of  mammals,  there  is  a 
great  break  in  the  life  system,  and  m  Europe,  in  the 
rock  system,  —  the  strata  there  being  universally  un- 
conformable, —  whereas  in  America  "  the  record  seems 


20  Ori(rin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  be  continuous,"  —  "conformable  rocks  connecting 
the  two  ems.  .  .  This  it  seems  impossible  to  explain 
on  the  theor}^  of  evolution,  unless  we  admit  periods 
of  rapid  evolution."  ■' 

Some  of  the  headlines  in  Dana's  "  Geology  "  serve 
to  emphasize  this  point.  The  formation  of  the  moun- 
tains bordering  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States 
he  refers  to  as  the  "Appalachian  revolution."  For  a 
long  period  the  whole  Mississippi  basin,  extending  to 
the  eastern  limit  of  the  Appalachian  range,  was  an 
area  of  subsidence.  Slowly  and  regularly  the  bottom 
of  the  shallow  sea  which  covered  it  sank,  keeping 
pace  with  the  accumulation  of  sediment  and  of  vege- 
table material  which  when  hardened  into  rock  con- 
stitute the  vast  Coal  Measures  of  the  United  States. 
But  at  a  well-defined  point  of  time  the  reverse  pro- 
cess began.  These  beds  w^ere  lifted  above  sea  level, 
and  the  eastern  portions  of  them  wrinkled  up  into 
the  folds  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains,  carrying  the 
coal  beds  to  their  very  summits.  At  'the  same  time, 
this  movement  was  connected  with  profound  changes 
in  the  animnl   and  vegetable  life  of  the  continent. 

Indeed,  this  is  the  story  which  is  told  in  all  the 
fields  where  are  displaj^ed  the  facts  pertaining  to  the 
most  recent  epochs  of  geological  history.  The  great 
mountain-buihling    eras    of    the    world's    history    have 


77/<-   Methods  of  Scientific   .IpM-onch  l\ 

been  it'w  and  far  between.  The  earh'est  mountains 
have  loivj  since  virtually  disappeared  from  the  world 
through  the  ever-active  agencies  of  denudation.  It 
asked  why  the  Andes,  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
the  Alps,  and  the  Himalayas  are  so  lofty,  it  v.ould 
be  correct  to  answer,  Because  they  are  so  youni^. 
The  last  crreat  m.ountain-buildinp;  era  of  the  world's 
history  is,  geologically  speaking,  very  close  to  us.  The 
mountains  all  along  the  western  portion  of  North 
America  have  been  raised  to  their  present  lofty  ele- 
vations mainly  in  late  IVrtiary  and  Post-Tertiary 
tim.es.  Middle  Tertian-  strata  crown  the  summit  of 
the  Alps  13,000  feet  above  sea  level,  and  there  is 
equally  conclusive  evidence  that  the  Himalaya  IVIoun- 
tains  have  been  raised  even  to  a  greater  elevation 
since  the  middle  portion  of  the  Tertiary  period. 

In  the  Glacial  epoch  we  have  another  illustration 
of  the  cumulative  effect  of  slowly  acting  causes,  lead- 
ing at  length  to  the  production  of  catastrophes  upon 
the  grandest  scale.  During  the  long  stretches  of  time 
which  marked  the  different  portions  of  the  Tertiary 
period,  r.othing  could  have  seemed  more  unlikely  than 
what  subsequently  occurred  in  the  great  Ice  Age: 
for,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  Tertiary  period 
a  genial,  subtropical  climate  prevailed  without  inter- 
ruption   over    the    northern    part    of    British    America, 


22 


Oriir'in  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


Greenland,  Iceland,  Spitzbergen,  and  Nova  Zcm- 
bla.  Meanwhile  the  great  plains  of  America  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River  were  covered  with  vast  lakes 
into  which  were  pouring  sluggish  streams  of  fresh 
water  from  alm.ost  every  side,  entombing  in  their 
sediment  vast  herds  of  animals  like  the  camel,  the 
elephant,  and  the  hippopotamus,  which  are  adapted 
to  a  warm  temperate  climate. 

But  this  genial  condition  of  things  was  brought  to 
a  close  by  the  changes  which  introduced  the  Glacial 
epoch.  Gradually  the  northern  part  both  of  Europe 
and  America  was  elevated  to  a  height  that  in  connec- 
tion with  other  causes  brought  on  the  rigors  of  what 
we  now  call  an  arctic  climate.  But  if  we  had  lived 
before  the  Glacial  epoch  the  word  "  arctic "  would 
have  had  a  very  different  meaning  from  that  w^hich 
it  now  possesses ;  for  the  arctic  zone  was  then  tem- 
perate. At  the  same  time  the  axis  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  was  elevated  some  thousands  of  feet,  so 
as  to  tilt  the  plains  upon  the  east  and  empty  out  the 
water  from  the  great  Tertiary  lakes,  and  prepare 
them  for  the  habitation  of  man,  —  a  drainage  enter- 
prise of  Nature  in  comparison  with  which  all  human 
schemes  seem  insignificant. 

Considered  in  themselves  the  changes  introducing 
the    Glacial    epoch    w^ould    have    seemed    to    proceed 


The  Methods  of  Scietitific  Jpproaeh  23 

slowly.  It  man  had  been  living  at  that  time,  it  is 
not  probable  that  in  any  single  generation  he  would 
have  been  able  to  perceive  and  mark  the  change. 
Nevertheless,  geologically  speaking,  it  was  so  rapid  as 
to  constitute  a  series  of  catastrophes.  The  physical 
conditions,  which  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years 
had  been  comparatively  uniform,  now^  underwent  a 
change  so  rapid  as  to  lead  to  the  extinction  of  a  large 
number  of  the  species  of  plants  and  animals  which 
then  existed.  The  plants  and  animals  of  the  present 
day  are,  indeed,  without  doubt,  descendants  of  the 
plants  and  animals  of  the  Tertiary  period.  But  they 
are  descendants  that  have  adopted  habits  and  forms 
peculiar  to  themselves.  They  are  survivals  from  the 
extrem.e  variations  of  that  period.  Most  of  the 
genera  to  which  modern  species  belong,  existed  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  T^rtmrj^  period;  but  the  species  are 
different.  There  were,  indeed,  then  in  North  America 
vast  herds  of  camels,  horses,  elephants,  rhinoceroses, 
hippopotamuses,  tapirs,  and  various  other  animals  re- 
sembling modern  types.  But  none  of  these  survived 
in  America,  the  only  remnants  of  the  genera  being 
preserved  in  portions  of  the  Eastern  continent.  Rela- 
tively, therefore,  to  the  tenacity  of  life  in  species,  the 
change  introducing  the  Glacial  epoch  was  so  rapid 
as  to  merit  the  name  of  a  catastrophe. 


24  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

In  the  natural  development  of  things,  the  closing 
scenes  of  the  Glacial  epoch  Involved  catastrophes  of 
a  still  more  striking  character.  The  gradualness  with 
which  the  refrigeration  culminating  in  the  Glacial 
epoch  proceeded,  Is  witnessed  to  bj^  the  gradual  dis- 
placement of  warm-water  species  of  shells  by  arctic 
species  over  the  area  of  sea  bottom  which  was  event- 
ually^ covered  by  ice.  On  the  eastern  shore  of  Eng- 
land, for  instance,  the  gradation  from  subtropical 
species  of  shell-fish  to  arctic  species  Is  complete  In 
the  beds  of  Cromer.^  But  as  the  events  connected 
with  the  breaking  up  of  winter  are  much  more 
striking  than  those  connected  wnth  Its  beginnings,  so 
the  final  breaking  up  of  glacial  conditions  w\as  a  series 
of  catastrophes.  All  the  lines  of  drainage  leading 
outw^ard  from  the  vast  mass  of  the  accumulated  ice 
became  periodically  gorged  with  floods  and  choked 
with  floating  ice  upon  an  enormous  scale.  At  the 
same  time  the  morainic  debris,  brought  in  many  in- 
stances from  distant  regions,  and  which  had  been 
held  In  an  Icy  grasp,  was  set  at  liberty,  to  become 
the  prey  of  the  swollen  floods,  and  to  combine  with 
the  loose  fragments  of  ice  still  further  to  choke  the 
water  courses  and  partially  obstruct  the  lines  of  drain- 
age. Thus  with  great  rapidity  there  wTre  built  up 
those   vast   lines   of   gravel    deposits   which    mark   the 


7V/r   Methods   of    Scientific  Af^proach  2S 

course  of  all  the  streams  which  How  outward  from 
the  ,^hiciated  rei^ion  in  North  America.  The  ter- 
races along  these  streams  at  the  present  time  repre- 
sent simply  what  is  left  from  that  period  by  the 
streams  which  are  slowly  reoccupying  and  reeroding 
the  \alle\s  which  were  choked  up  by  the  debris  during 
the  Hoods  of  the  Glacial  epoch.  As  we  shall  see  later, 
it  is  in  deposits  connected  with  these  closing  catastro- 
phes of  the  Glacial  epoch  that  we  chieliy  find  the 
earliest  relics  of  the  lumian  race. 

In  estimating  the  antiquity  of  such  relics,  we  shall 
have  to  be  on  our  guard  both  against  extending  un- 
duly the  analogies  of  the  present  time  and  against 
exaggerated  views  of  the  briefness  of  time  occupied 
by  such  a  series  of  geological  catastrophes  as  were 
evidently  connected  with  the  close  of  the  Glacial 
epoch.  For,  as  we  can  see,  such  catastrophes  as  arc 
connected  with  the  annual  breaking  up  of  the  ice 
upon  our  northern  rivers  every  spring,  and  which  are 
limited  to  a  few  days,  would  in  the  movements  of 
the  Glacial  epoch  be  represented  by  many  centuries. 

From  this  brief  discussion  of  the  conditions  con- 
tributing to,  and  attending,  the  physical  changes 
which  have  taken  place  in  the  geological  history  of 
the  world,  it  will  be  seen  that  estimates  of  geological 


26  Oris^in  and  Ajitiquity  of  Man 

time  cannot  safely  be  made  offhand.  The  significance 
of  finding  the  evidence  of  man's  antiquity  connected 
with  that  of  important  geological  changes  is  not  so 
great  as  at  first  sight  it  might  appear  to  be,  for 
there  is  abroad  a  mistaken  impression  that  whatever 
is  geological  is  also  ancient;  whereas  geological  forces 
are  now  at  work  with  a  considerable  degree  of  in- 
tensity, and  geological  changes  of  great  importance 
may  be  very  recent  as  W£ll  as  very  ancient.  The 
determination  of  the  length  of  time  required  to  ac- 
count for  the  geological  changes  which  have  taken 
place  since  man  left  the  indications  of  his  presence 
in  the  world  w^ill  require  a  definite  study  of  each 
instance  and  of  all  attending  circumstances. 

So,  also,  there  is  no  royal  road  anyw^here  to  the . 
knowledge  of  man's  antiquity.  Especially  will  it  be 
necessary  to  bear  this  caution  in  mind  when  consider- 
ing the  argument  for  antiquity  drawn  from  the 
physiological  changes  which  have  taken  place  since 
man's  original  appearance  in  the  world,  and  from  his 
diversification  into  the  various  races  which  are  now 
scattered  over  the  surface  of  the  earth.  For  the 
present  stability  of  races  may  be,  and  probably  is, 
correlated  to  the  stability  of  the  physical  conditions 
now  existing;  while  the  paroxysmal  clianges  through 
which   the  race   may  have  been  called   to  pass  in  the 


The   Methods  of  Siicnlific  Apf^roach  27 

early  staizcs  of  its  liistory  may  have  resulted  in  a 
correspoiuliiiLily  more  rapid  rate  of  chanize  in  man 
himself  while  becoming  adapted  to  new  conditions. 

Most  of  all  shall  we  find  these  cautions  necessary 
in  drawing  inferences  concerning  the  time  required 
for  the  development  of  the  various  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion. Necessity  is  the  mother  of  Invention,  and  a 
prolonged  subjection  of  the  race  to  conditions  in 
which  mental  development  Is  of  special  advantage 
will  be  sure  to  quicken  the  pace  of  that  development ; 
so  that  here,  also,  we  shall  not  find  any  ready-made 
rule  by  which  to  gauge  the  rise  of  the  culture  of  an- 
tiquity and  to  estimate  our  distance  in  time  from  it. 

Finally,  a  glance  at  the  vicissitudes  through  which 
animals  and  man  have  been  called  to  pass  in  their 
struggle  to  maintain  existence  will  make  It  easy  for 
us  to  believe  that  there  has  been  a  divinity  shaping 
the  ends  of  life,  and  determining  the  course  of  its 
tortuous  development.  The  maintenance  of  organic 
life  in  continuity  of  development,  especially  of  the 
higher  forms  of  life,  is  dependent  upon  so  many  del- 
icate adjustments  that  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  believe 
that  it  has  been  secured  without  design.  Especially  Is 
the  argument  from  design  convincing  when  we  see 
coming  into  existence  man,  the  supreme  and  most 
exquisite  flower  of  the  course  of  nature. 


28  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  HISTORICAL  EVIDENCE 

GENERAL    CONSIDERATIONS 

Properly  enough,  we  attempt  to  distinguish  be- 
tween history  and  natural  history,  but  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  draw  the  divid- 
ing line.  By  some,  history  is  limited  to  inquiries 
concerning  the  origin  and  life  of  nations,  thus  rele- 
gating to  natural  history  the  whole  period  previous 
to  that  of  written  records;  for  it  Is  scarcely  possible 
to  conceive  of  any  extensive  development  of  national 
life  without  the  aid  to  organization  furnished  by 
written  language. 

It  might  be  thought  that  a  code  of  laws  could  be 
transmitted  by  memory,  as  the  Rig- Veda  Is  transmitted 
even  at  the  present  time  and  as  the  Talmud  was  trans- 
mitted for  about  five  centuries ;  but,  although  this  may 
have  been  done  to  some  extent,  the  natural  perversity  of 
human  nature  is  such  that  it  fails  to  remember  what 
Is  not  to  Its  advantage,  and  a  fixed  code  would  be 
rendered  Impossible  by  conflicting  Interests.  In  the 
case  of  the  sacred  writings  mentioned  above,  super- 
stition was  a  powerful  ally  In  maintaining  the  purity 


The  Historical  Evidence  29 

of  the  text.  Men  did  not  dare  to  change  it.  A 
code  of  laws  would  have  no  such  backiivj;,  ami  only 
a  written  or  inscribed  text  would  be  able  to  furnish 
a  positive  and  unchanging  basis  of  procedure,  since  a 
ruler's  memory  would  dominate  the  situation  other- 
wise and  the  code  would  change  to  suit  his  fancy 
at  the  moment.  A  favorite  might  thus  warp  the 
laws,  and  anarchy  would  soon  follow. 

Written  records  are  found  not  only  in  books,  but 
on  monuments  and  coins,  and  furnish  us  the  most 
copious  and  important  information  concerning  the 
past;  but  their  value  depends  in  great  degree  upon 
the  proximity  of  the  historian  to  the  facts  he  pur- 
ports to  record.  Tradition  loses  its  value  after  three 
or  four  generations.  Still,  with  the  present  length 
of  human  life,  a  pretty  correct  account  of  leading 
events  can  be  preserved  by  tradition  for  a  period  of 
130  or  140  years.  A  person  who  is  seventy-five 
years  old  can  easily  transmit  from  memory  some  very 
definite  facts  related  to  him  by  those  whose  memory 
goes  back  to  events  which  occurred  130  years  before. 
Perhaps  in  earlier  times,  before  the  art  of  writing 
was  generally  practised,  tradition  may  have  pre- 
served a  credible  account  of  the  events  for  a  much 
loniier  period,  but  the  tendency  to  the  conversion  of 
story   into   legend    through    the   increments   of   subjec- 


30  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

tive  speculation  is  probably  so  nearly  irresistible  at 
all  times  as  to  make  tradition  valueless  for  historical 
purposes  after  the  third  or  fourth  generation,  except 
where  it  has  been  held  in  check  by  written  documents, 
by  inscriptions,  or  by  national  or  social  observances. 
According  to  Sir  W.  Muir,  out  of  600,000  tradi- 
tions current  200  years  after  the  death  of  Mahomet, 
not  more  than  2,000  could  be  deemed  to  have  the 
slightest  claim  to  be  regarded  as  authentic. 

Bearing  these  considerations  in  mind,  we  shall 
find  that  written  history  conducts  us  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  distance  back  into  the  vistas  of  time 
during  which  man  has  existed  upon  the  earth;  while 
many  of  the  most  important  earliest  records  either 
will  present  difficulties  of  interpretation  or  will  be  of 
doubtful  authenticity.  For  instance,  the  Chinese 
records  carry  back  the  authentic  history  .of  the  em- 
pire only  to  the  founding  of  the  dynasty  of  Yaho, 
in  the  year  2357  R-C,  from  which  time  regular  his- 
torical records  have  been  preserved.  Previous  to 
that  time  the  accounts  are  too  evidently  mythical  to 
be  of  any  value. 

The  classical  literature  of  Greece  carries  us  back 
only  a  short  distance  into  the  early  history  of  the 
human  race.  It  is  not  until  the  fifth  century  before 
the   Christian   era  that  systematic  historians  like   He- 


The  Historical  Ivridcncc  3 1 

rodotiis  and  Thucxdidcs  arose,  and  cvidnitly  tlu'ir 
opinion  upon  the  remote  antiquities  of  the  nation  is 
of  slii2;ht  value.  The  poems  of  Homer  had  been  re- 
duced to  writing  perhaps  four  hundred  years  before 
Herodotus  made  his  memorable  contribution  to  the 
history  of  the  world,  that  is,  at  about  the  year  850 
B.C. ;  and  the  Trojan  War,  which  they  commemorate, 
occurred  only  three  or  four  hundred  years  earlier, 
or  possibly  about  1200  B.C.  Beyond  this  period  we 
are  left  to  inference  from  very  uncertain  data  for  the 
construction  of  Grecian  histor}- ;  while  Roman  history 
begins  nearly  five  hundred  years  later  than  that  of 
Greece. 

A  new  chapter  in  Grecian  histor^^  however,  has 
been  opened  by  the  explorations  of  Evans,  Murray, 
Burrows,  and  others  in  the  Island  of  Crete/  where, 
at  Knossos,  there  has  been  uncovered  the  Labyrinth 
which  Daedalus  is  reputed  to  have  built  for  Minos, 
who  is  no  lonj^er  considered  a  mere  fabulous  mon- 
ster. In  this  remarkable  palace  evidence  is  brought 
to  liidit  of  a  pre-Grecian  civilization  connecting  it- 
self with  the  Sixth  Dynasty  of  Egypt  between  30t>o 
and  4000  years  before  Christ.  Here  have  been  found 
numerous  statues,  paintings,  and  architectural  designs, 
rivalling  in  excellence  the  products  of  the  classic 
period  of  Grecian   art,  but  antedating  them  by  three 


llic  Historical  Evidence  33 

niillcnniums.  liulecel,  the  ruin  which  ovcrwhchiicd 
the  capital  of  the  Sea  Kinjj;s  of  Crete  occurred  as 
early  as  1400  B.C.,  coeval  with  the  Dynasty  of  Am- 
enhotep  III,  at  the  time  when  luxury  was  under- 
minins:  Egyptian  civilization,  and  two  hundred  years 
before  the  siege  of  Troy.  Furthermore,  beneath  the 
foundations  of  the  palace,  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet 
of  debris  were  excavated,  containing  relics  of  the 
stone  age,  such  as  are  found  extensively  all  over  Eu- 
rope. But  the  data  for  estimating  the  rate  of  the 
accumulation  of  this  debris  are  so  uncertain  that  one 
is  not  warranted  in  allowing  for  it  more  than  a  few 
centuries,   or  at  most  one  or  two   thousand  years. 

It  is  only  when  we  turn  to  the  valleys  of  the  Nile 
and  the  Euphrates  that  we  get  back  any  appreciable 
distance  towards  the  origin  of  the  human  race 
through  written  records.  It  is  the  more  important 
to  get  clearly  before  our  minds  the  trustworthy  teach- 
ing of  the  earliest  records  of  these  nations,  since  it 
is  from  their  histories  as  a  starting  point  that  we  set 
out  upon  the  more  difficult  problem  of  tracing  the 
progress  of  human  events  in  earlier  times  by  the 
vague  and  obscure  data  afforded  by  geology,  by  the 
science  of  language,  and  by  natural-  history.  The 
main    problem    immediateK"   before   us   will,    therefore, 


34  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

be  to  give  a  reasonable  account  of  man  as  we  find 
him  in  the  stage  of  civilization  to  which  he  had  ar- 
rived according  to  the  records  on  the  earliest  Egyp- 
tian and  Babylonian  monuments. 

From  the  evidence  found  in  the  literature  and  the 
monuments  of  these  early  empires  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates  of  the  progress  already 
attained  by  the  human  race  in  art  and  science  and 
literature,  and  from  the  indications  of  the  extent  to 
which  the  peculiarities  of  race  and  language  had  then 
already  become  fixed,  we  may  get  a  standard  of  some 
value  with  which  to  measure  the  preceding  ages. 
Indeed,  if  we  might  assume  that  the  progress  of  the 
human  race  had  been  in  all  times  uniform,  it  would 
seem  to  be  an  easy  matter  to  determine  the  date  of 
its  origin  by  a  simple  rule  of  three.  Given,  for  ex- 
ample, the  amount  of  physical  change  which  has 
taken  place  in  the  races  of  the  world  since  the  be- 
ginning of  Egyptian  history,  and,  given  the  progress 
which  has  been  made  in  the  mental  and  moral  devel- 
opment of  man  in  that  time,  the  question  would  be, 
How  far  would  the  line  of  progress  have  to  ex- 
tend to  reach  the  point  where  mankind  first  emerged 
from  the  lowest  level  of  his  primitive  condition? 
Hut  unfortunately,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  prob- 
lem is  not  so  simple  as  this  would  make  it  appear. 


The  Historical  Evidence  35 

The  doctrine  of  uniformity  in  the  progress  of 
events,  either  in  nature  or  in  human  history,  is  hy  no 
means  established,  and  is  not  involved  in  any  rational 
doctrine  of  evolution.  As  already  stated,  there  are  fre- 
quent paroxysms  in  nature,  when  slowly  accumulating 
forces  display  themselves  suddenly,  and  reveal  effects  for 
which  previous  observation  could  have  done  little  to 
prepare  us.  The  geologist  has  learned  to  recognize 
catastrophes  in  nature  as  well  as  the  infinitesimal 
steps  which  mark  the  more  quiescent  stages  of  prog- 
ress. 

But  especially  are  we  compelled  to  recognize  these 
paroxysmal  stages  of  progress  in  human  history.  It 
is  indeed  true  that  a  great  leader  is  dependent  for 
success  upon  his  environment,  or,  in  other  words, 
upon  the  preparation  for  his  work  which  he  finds 
around  him.  Luther  could  have  accomplished  noth- 
ing without  the  German  people ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  German  people  would  have  accomplished 
little  in  t!ie  way  of  reform  without  their  Luther. 
Alexander  and  Caesar  are  worthy  of  all  the  honor 
bestowed  upon  them  for  their  militan'  and  political 
accomplishments;  even  though  it  be  true  that,  with- 
out the  peculiar  material  and  moral  conditions  sur- 
rounding them  they  would  have  made  little  mark  in 
the  world.     In  all  such  movements  there  are  the  lead- 


36  Origin  and  Atit'iquity  of  Man 

ers  and  the  led.  When  the  preparation  is  made  and 
the  requisite  moral  and  phj^sical  forces  are  in  exist- 
ence, a  genius  can  change  the  face  of  history  in  a  single 
decade.  But  without  the  timel}^  appearance  of  the  ge- 
nius all  these  accumulated  forces  would  be  dissipated. 
We  cannot,  therefore,  reasonably  escape  the  con- 
clusion that  history  is  naturally  divided  into  epochs 
which  are  marked  by  rapid  stages  in  their  develop- 
ment. No  one,  for  example,  can  deny  that  the  ap- 
pearance of  Jesus  Christ  introduced  transforming 
agencies  which  rapidly  changed  the  whole  course  of 
human  events.  Mohammedanism,  too,  arose  suddenly 
through  the  influence  of  Mohammed's  remarkable 
personality.  So,  also,  the  discovery  of  America  would 
not  have  been  accomplished  without  the  agency  of  a 
personality  like  that  of  Columbus.  For  thousands  of 
years  Europe  and  Asia  had  waited  for  it.  But  vvhen  it 
came,  a  new  order  in  the  world's  history  rapidly  de- 
veloped. And  so  through  the  discovery  of  steam  and 
electricity,  the  whole  world  has  been  transformed, 
superficially,  in  a  single  century.  Indeed,  more 
progress  has  been  made  in  the  forms  of  material  civ- 
ilization during  the  past  century  than  was  made  in 
the  preceding  four  thousand  years.  In  America  a 
new  order  of  political  development  was  made  possible 
by  the  exalted  personality  of  Washington.     It  is  use- 


The  Historical  FA'idince  37 

less  to  say  that  the  American  Revolution  was  inevit- 
able from  slow  workini:^  causes.  W^ithout  such  a 
leader  as  Wa^hini^ton  the  whole  movement  would 
have  been  futile.  With  incapacity  and  personal  am- 
bition in  command  the  ship  of  state  would  have  been 
beached  on  the  surroundinp^  shoals  or  broken  to 
pieces  on  the  hidden  rocks  of  a  tempestuous  sea.  The 
same  is  true  concerning  the  outcome  of  the  civil  war 
in  the  United  States  when  slavery  was  abolished.  It 
was  the  unique  personality  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
which  held  the  forces  of  the  North  together  and  made 
them  effective.  So  it  has  always  been.  Without  ex- 
ception the  turning  points  in  the  world's  history  have 
been  marked  by  the  appearance  of  great  leaders  whose 
personal  characteristics  are  not  accounted  lor  by  any 
known  law  of  natural  causes.  Geniuses  do  not  spring 
spontaneously  out  of  the  ground. 

With  these  cautions  in  mind,  we  will  turn  to  the 
immediate  task  in  hand,  and  attempt  to  follow  back 
the  thread  of  history  as  brought  to  light  by  the  litera- 
ture, the  inscriptions,  and  the  monuments  preserved 
in  the  ruins  of  Babylonia  and  Egypt. 

AXTIOUITY    OF     RABVLOXIAX     CIVILIZATIOX 

Inscriptions  in  the  Euphrates  Valley  easily  carr\' 
us  back  to  about   3000   B.C.,  and   probably  to  a  con- 


The  Ilistoricfil  Evidence  39 

sidernhly  cnrlicr  date.  Some  time  duriiifi;  tliat  in- 
definite period,  Semitic  bands  apparently  from  the 
plateaus  of  Eastern  Arabia  entered  the  valley  of  the 
Euphrates,  and  took  possession  of  various  cities  of 
an  indigenous  race  (the  Sumerians)  that  had  already 
acquired  a  written  language  and  attained  a  high  de- 
gree of  civilization.  Among  these  cities,  beginning  at 
the  south,  were  Eridu,  Ur  (Mugheir),  Lagash 
(Telloh),  Larsa  (Senkereh),  Nippur  (Nuf^ar), 
Uruk  (Warka),  Babylon,  Sippar  (Abu  Hobba), 
Ninevah,  and  Haran.  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  spoken 
of  in  Biblical  history  as  the  birthplace  of  Abraham, 
still  exists  in  the  ruins  of  Mugheir. 

But  strange  changes  have  passed  over  the  region 
since  that  early  time.  When  Terah  and  Abraham 
left  their  native  land  (Gen.  xi.  31),  Ur  was  a  mari- 
time city,  with  harbor  and  docks.  The  Euphrates 
and  the  Tigris  then  entered  the  sea  by  separate  out- 
lets, and  Ur  was  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Euphrates.  But  the  ever-present  sediment  of  these 
mighty  rivers  has  long  since  silted  up  the  upper  part 
of  the  Persian  Gulf  until  now  these  ruins  are  150 
miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Ur  was  then  the 
seat  of  an  active  intellectual  life.  The  other  cities 
mentioned    contained    numerous   public    buildings    and 


40  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

libraries,  which  show  that  the  cuneiform  system  of 
writing  had  already  attained  its  full  development. 
Irrigation  was  practised  so  as  to  develop  the  resources 
of  the  country  to  their  fullest  extent;  while  religious 
differences  appeared  which  indicate  a  long  previous 
historic  Ur  was  the  center  of  the  worship  of  the 
moon-god,  Larsa  of  the  sun,  Uruk  of  Ishtar,  and  Nip- 
pur of  Bel. 

At  a  still  earlier  date  we  have  the  records  of  Sar- 
gon  and  Naram-Sin,  his  son,  the  former  of  whom 
styles  himself  "  king  of  Agade,  (Accad)"  a  city  forty 
or  fifty  miles  north  of  Babylon.  Sargon  was  a  great 
warrior,  extending  his  conquests  to  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  a  distance  of  a  thousand  miles.  The 
following  inscription  is  the  account  he  gives  of  his  own 
deeds:  "For  forty-five  years  I  have  ruled  the  king- 
dom. The  Accadian  race  I  have  governed.  In  multitudes 
of  bronze  chariots  I  rode  over  rugged  lands.  I  gov- 
erned the  upper  countries.  Three  times  to  the  coasts 
of  the  sea  I  advanced."  Sargon's  date  (about  3800 
B.C.)  is  now  pretty  definitely  settled,  through  an  in- 
scribed cylinder  of  Nabonidus,  the  last  king  of  Baby- 
lon (.550  B.C.),  who,  speaking  of  repairs  which  he 
made  upon  one  of  the  temples,  says,  that  beneath  the 
foundations,  or  as  we  should  say  in  the  cornerstone, 
he   found   an   inscription,   deposited   by  the  great   Sar- 


77/('  Historical  Evidence  41 

uon's  son,  ''  which  for  thrice  thousand  and  twice 
hiiiulred  years  none  of  tlie  kiii;j;s  that  had  lived  hefore 
him  had  seen."  -  This  would  give,  as  stated  above, 
to  Naram-Sin,  Sargon's  son,  the  date  of  3750  B.C., 
and  to  his  father  3800  B.C.  Other  independent  doc- 
uments corroborate  this  statement  on  the  cylinder  of 
Nabonidus. 


m 

mm 

Pre-Sargunic    Tablet    (4500   B.C.)-      (CV)uitesy    of   the   S.    S. 
Times  Co.) 


42  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

By  another  route  we  are  brought  to  an  equally 
early  date  in  the  history  of  the  same  region.  The 
Assyrian  king  Assurbanipal  was  the  founder  of  a 
great  library  at  Nineveh.  For  a  long  time  he  was 
at  war  with  the  Elamites,  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
valley,  and  at  length  captured  its  capital,  Shushan  (or 
Susa).  This  was  in  645  B.C.  In  the  inscriptions  he 
records  that  he  found  in  the  temple  at  Susa  the  statue 
of  a  Chaldean  goddess  which  had  been  carried  away 
from  the  city  of  Warka  by  the  king  of  Elam  1635 
years  before.  The  Assyrian  king  says  that  he  restored 
this  statue  to  its  own  sanctuary  in  Warka.  Adding 
together  the  dates  above  given,  we  are  carried  back 
to  the  year  2280  B.C.  The  condition  of  civilization 
implied  by  this  Elamite  conquest  in  2280  indicates, 
according  to  ordinary  experience,  a  long  preliminary 
stage,  which  would  very  probably  coincide  with  the 
date  already  given  for  the  founding  of  Accad.^ 

Efforts  have  been  made  to  discredit  this  inference 
of  Nabonidus  but  at  most  Sargon's  date  is  only 
brought  down  a  thousand  years,  to  2800  B.C.  There 
is,  however,  probably  no  good  reason  for  disputing 
the  higher  estimate.  But  even  if  it  should  be  reduced, 
the  argument  for  the  great  antiquity  of  the  human 
race  in  the  Euphrates  Valley  is  by  no  means  discred- 
ited ;  for  there  is  abundant  evidence  of  a  long  period 


The  Iltstoricdl  Evidence 


43 


of  civilization  in  Babylonia  prcccdinf^  the  clays  of  Sar- 
gon  and  Naram-Sin. 

In  the  exxavations  by  the  Philadelphia  Expedi- 
tion at  Nippur,  Mr.  Haynes  found  thirty  feet  of 
debris  below  the  pavement  of  Naram-Sin.  This 
debris  represents  the  slow  accumulation  which  takes 
place  in  Eastern  cities  built  of  sun-dried  bricks,  where 


Archaic    arch   of    Nippur    (about  4000   B.C./. 
the  S.   S.  Times  Co.) 


(  C    (>UI  lC>\       (U 


44  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  street  slowly  rises  above  the  level  of  the  house 
floors  until  the  easiest  way  to  remedy  the  growing 
inconvenience  is  to  fill  up  the  houses  and  start  on  a 
new  level.  It  is  thus  that  the  mound  marking  the 
site  of  Nippur  in  the  Euphrates  Valley  reached  such 
an  elevation  that  still  in  ruins  it  averages  sixty  feet 
above  the  plain,  and  at  one  point,  where  the  temple 
tower  originally  stood,  a  height  of  ninety  feet. 

While  there  is  no  certain  means  of  telling  the  rate 
at  which  this  accumulation  proceeded  at  all  times, 
it  is  significant  that  the  sculpture  and  the  inscrip- 
tions discovered  in  these  lower  strata,  below  the  pave- 
ment of  Naram-Sin,  are  of  such  a  high  order  that 
they  indicate  a  long  lapse  of  time  to  account  for  the 
progress  which  had  already  been  made  in  arts  and 
civilization.  Twelve  feet  below  Sargon's  pavement 
there  was  found  a  vaulted  arch  of  burnt  bricks,  built 
in  a  wall  to  protect  pipes  which  passed  beneath;  indi- 
cating a  high  state  of  progress  in  mechanical  skill. 

Among  the  other  objects  of  special  significance  dis- 
covered in  this  thirty  feet  of  debris  below  Naram- 
Sin's  pavement  are  fragments  of  a  white  stalagmite 
vase,  bearing  inscriptions  of  a  dynasty  which  pre- 
ceded Sargon  by  several  centuries.  These  inscrip- 
tions show  a  well-established  language  and  a  high 
degree  of  skill  in  the  formation  of  the  letters. 


The  Historical  Evidence  4S 

Moreover,  the  P>ench  explorers  at  Telloh,  a  nei;j:h- 
borlng  city,  clearly  established  a  line  of  rulers  belong- 
ing to  this  period,  extending  far  into  the  past.  Among 
the  art  treasures  discovered  by  them  were  two  votive 
slabs  covered  with  cuneiform  inscriptions  and  figures 
of  men  and  animals,  showing  remarkable  skill  in  giv- 
ing lifelike  appearance  to  li\ing  forms. 

Again,  the  character  of  the  vv'riting  in  this  pre- 
Sargonic  period  shows  an  advanced  stage  in  the  art, 
since  the  letters  have  already  lost  to  a  large  extent 
their  original  hieroglyphic  or  pictorial  outlines.  In- 
deed, the  language  of  this  pre-Sargonic  period  is 
nearly  the  same  as  that  which  was  still  in  use  in 
Babylonia  four  thousand  years  later,  and  was  already 
differentiated   from   the  other  Semitic  tongues. 

This  high  state  of  art  and  culture,  it  is  agreed, 
could  not  have  been  attained  in  a  short  time.  Of  the 
seal  cylinders  of  this  age  the  work  is  so  delicate  as  to 
call  forth  admiration  from  all  competent  judges.  In 
the  words  of  Professor  Clay,  "  The  lapidist  must 
have  possessed  delicate  saws,  drills  and  other  tools. 
The  tact  is  that  the  skill  manifested  in  their  execu- 
tion was  never  equaled  in  subsequent  Babylonian  his- 
tory, and  can  scarcely  be  surpassed  in  the  present  day 
with  all  our  modern   improvements."  ^ 

The  same   facts  are  expatiated    upon   b}-   Winckler, 


46  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

who  writes:  "The  numerous  monuments  of  this  period 
evince  technical  skill  of  the  highest  order.  .  .  .  The 
inscriptions  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  are  distin- 
guished by  a  beautiful  script,  and  so  excellent  is  the 
technical  execution  of  Gudea's  statues  that  archaeolo- 
gists once  thought  it  necessary  to  assume  a  Greek 
Influence. 

"...  Owning  to  the  statements  of  classical  writers 
the  invention  of  the  arch  has  hitherto  been  attributed 
to  the  Etruscans,  but  the  Babylonians  made  use  of  It 
in  their  most  ancient  buildings  In  Lagash,  or  Telloh. 
Their  technical  skill  rested  on  scientific  principles  no 
less  unattainable  In  modern  architecture  than  the 
Grecian  idea  of  beauty  In  the  plastic  art.  The  build- 
ings which  they  constructed  with  brick  must  have 
been  built  according  to  rules  and  laws  unknown  to 
modern  architecture,  which  views  many  of  these  an- 
cient works  with  the  same  astonishment  as  Is  evoked 
by  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt."  ^ 

We  may  also  note  again  the  significance  of  the  fact 
that  the  development  of  writing,  justly  regarded  as 
the  greatest  of  all  intellectual  feats,  was  made  thus 
early  in  Babylonian  history.  It  is  worthy  of  note, 
also,  that  In  astronomy  and  mathematics  we  still  pay 
tribute  to  the  Babylonians  of  that  remote  period. 
From    their   astronomical    observations   we    have    bor- 


VV/c  Ilisforiral  Evidence  47 

rowed  our  calendar.  We  continue  to  use  their  month 
and  weeic,  to  name  our  days  after  theirs  and  to  divide 
them,  as  they  did.  into  twelve  double  hours,  as  the 
faces  of  our  clocks  and  watches  would  remind  us. 

ANTJQUITY    OF    EGYPTIAN    CIVILIZATION 

The  valley  of  the  Nile  vies  with  that  of  the  Eu- 
phrates in  the  antiquity  of  its  records,  but  in  Egypt 
the  difficulties  of  obtaining  exact  chronological  data 
are  even  greater  than  in  Mesopotamia.  The  chief 
reliance  for  dates  in  Egyptian  history  anterior  to  the 
eighth  century  before  the  Christian  era  are  the  lists 
of  Manetho,  an  Egyptian  priest,  who  lived  during 
the  third  century  before  the  Christian  era,  during  the 
reign  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  and  wrote  a  histor>' 
of  Egypt  in  Greek.  This  history  itself  has  been  lost, 
but  the  lists  were  copied  by  Josephus,'^  and  are  pre- 
served in  two  or  three  other  v.orks  v/ritten  early 
during  the  Christian  era.'  Still  by  the  aid  of  the 
monuments  we  can  go  back  with  reasonable  certainty 
to  an  antiquity  of  three  thousand  or  four  thousand 
years  before  the  Christian  era;  and  the  revelations 
made  concerning  the  advancement  of  the  nation  m 
arts,  science,  and  literature  in  those  early  periods  are 
the  significant  facts  upon  which  we  need  to  fix  our 
attention  in  the  present  inquiries. 


48  Grig}?!  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Among  the  dates  pretty  definitely  fixed  is  that  of 
the  Exodus  of  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egypt 
after  the  deatli  of  Rameses  II.  (about  1300  B.C.),  a 
little  before  the  Trojan  War.  Four  hundred  and 
thirty  years  before  this,  which  is  the  generally  ac- 
cepted time  for  their  sojourn  in  Egypt,  would  carry 
us  back  to  the  year  1730  r>.c.,  when  Joseph  became 
prime  minister  under  the  Pharaohs.  It  was  some- 
thing more  than  250  years  before  this  that  Abraham 
in  his  wanderings  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  was  com- 
pelled by  famine  to  share  the  hospitality  of  Egypt. 
But  at  this  early  period  he  found  there  a  highly  de- 
veloped civilization  considerably  in  advance  even  of 
what  he  had  left  behind  him  in  the  fertile  plains  of 
Shinar.  The  pyramids  were  even  then  monuments 
of  great  antiquity.  In  Napoleon's  address  to  his  sol- 
diers in  Egypt,  his  ignorance  of  Egyptian  chronology 
weakened  the  force  of  his  celebrated  reference  to  these 
ancient  structures.  Instead  of  "  forty  centuries,"  he 
would  probably  have  been  within  the  truth  if  he  had 
said.  The  shadow  of  sixty  centuries  look  down  upon 
you  from  these  lofty  piles  of  stone.  For  even  accord- 
ing to  the  more  moderate  calculations,  the  great 
pyramids  were  constructed  thirty-seven  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  More  probably,  however,  they  were 
built  some  centuries  earlier  than  4000  B.C. 


TJic  I lis/oricdl  Evidence  49 

\\q  shall  ilo  wt'Il  to  consider  what  the  existence  of 
such  nionumcnts  at  that  early  date  implies.  The 
larLicst  of  the  three  pyramids  of  Gizeh  covered  an 
area  of  more  than  thirteen  acres,  having  a  base  of 
seven  hundred  and  sixty-four  feet  upon  each  side. 
Its  height  was  a  little  over  four  hundred  and  eighty 
feet,  —  six  feet  higher  than  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome,  and  two  hundred  feet  higher  than  the  Cap- 
itol at  Washington.  The  weight  of  its  mass  was 
7,000,000  tons.  Some  of  the  basement  stones  of  this 
huge  edifice  are  thirty  feet  long  by  about  five  feet  in 
their  other  dimensions,  and  v.'ould  weigh  from  fifty 
to  sixty  tons.  In  general,  the  blocks  upon  the  out- 
side of  the  pyramids  are  larger  than  modern  build- 
ers venture  to  handle.  The  interior  blocks  w^re 
quarried  from  limestone  ledges  near  at  hand,  but  the 
surface  was  covered  with  huge  blocks  of  syenite, 
brought  from  a  quarry  in  the  vicinity  of  Assouan, 
near  the  first  cataract,  five  hundred  miles  distant. 
This  granite,  sprinkled  with  black  and  red,  harder 
than  iron,  and  shining  beautifully  when  polished, 
was  quarried  in  enormous  quantities,  and  brought 
down  to  Lower  Egypt  for  building  and  monumental 
purposes.  The  labor  of  quarrying  so  hard  a  stone 
was  not  only  immense,  but  required  a  high  degree  of 
skill.     "  The  traces  of  this  labor  and  severe  work  are 


50 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


still  left  visible  from  those  ancient  times.  Here  are 
seen  the  sharp  stroke  of  chisel;  there  the  mining  hole 
may  be  clearl)'  distinguished;  here  we  meet  with 
the  outline  of  a  colossal  statue,  like  a  form  in  a 
mould;  there  the  whole  length  of  a  fourth  side  of 
an  obelisk  still  hangs  in  the  rock,  as  if  it  had  grown 
there  and  was  waiting  for  the  master  to  loosen  it 
from   its   bed."  ^ 

Nor  are  the  marks  of  Khufu's  energy  limited  to 
Egypt.  Rock  tablets  in  the  w^adies  of  the  Sinaitic 
desert  bear  testimony  to  his  victorious  sway  in  that 
region,  where  doubtless  he  was  attracted  by  the  mines, 
which  were  so  early  worked  for  their  hidden  treas- 
ures. And  all  this,  four  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  and  three  thousand  years  before  the 
earliest  gleams  of  Grecian  history  glance  to  us  from 
the  poems  of  Homer.  A  modern  silver-tongued  ora- 
tor found  abundant  opportunities  to  expatiate  upon 
the  lost  arts  when  contemplating  the  enormous  works 
undertaken  and  carried  through  In  Egypt  in  those 
dim  ages  of  the  world's  h^stor^^ 

Astronomical  data  also  furnish  us  important  evi- 
dences of  Egyptian  antiquity.  The  Egyptians  did 
not  observe  leap-year.  Hence  In  every  1460  years 
there  occurred  a  complete  shift  of  the  nominal  months. 
But   the   actual    progress   of   the   seasons   always   con- 


Tlw  U'lstorical  Evidence  51 

tornied  to  the  pro2;ress  of  the  sun  in  the  ecliptic.  The 
iniiiuhition  of  the  Nile  he.^an  with  the  visible  rising 
of  the  doii-star  (Siriiis).  The  name  of  this  star  in 
Ivj;ypt  was  Sethis.  The  revolution  of  the  nominal 
year,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  occurred  once  in  \,^bo 
natural  \ears,  was  called  the  Sothic  period  or  the 
Sothic  year.  One  of  these  periods  we  know  began  139 
A.D.  This  enables  us  to  reckon  back  to  the  recorded 
beginning  of  a  Sothic  period  in  the  reign  of  Merenp- 
tah  and  through  others  to  earlier  dynasties.  From 
these  astronomical  data,  Petrie  fixes  the  commence- 
ment of  the  first  dynasty  at  4777  B.C.,  the  fourth 
dynasty  at  3998,  the  sixth  at  3410,  the  eleventh  at 
2985,  the  twelfth  at  2778,  the  thirteenth  at  2565. 
the  eighteenth  at   1587,  the  nineteenth  at   1327.^ 

Nor  was  it  alone  in  the  arts  of  material  civiliza- 
tion that  Egypt  excelled  in  those  early  days.  In  1847 
a  papyrus  w^as  discovered  in  Thebes,  and  presented 
to  the  National  Library  in  Paris  by  Monsieur  Prisse; 
hence  known  as  the  Prisse  Papyrus.  On  examina- 
tion, this  proved  to  contain  a  treatise  on  Manners, 
wiitten  by  Kakimna  in  the  reign  of  Senoferu,  the 
last  king  of  the  Third  Dynasty,  and  a  treatise  on 
Morals,  by  Ptah-Hotep,  of  the  Fifth  Dynasty.  Ac- 
cording to  the  best  authorities,  therefore,  the  first  of 
these  would   date  back   to   4450   B.C.,   and   the  second 


52  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  3950  B.C.  All  unite  in  calling  this  the  oldest 
book  in  the  world,  written  according  to  the  most 
trustworthy  of  these  estimates  more  than  six  thou- 
sand years  ago,  and  having  for  ages  profoundly  influ- 
enced the  noble  people  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  who 
offered  a  refuge  to  all  the  world  in  times  of  distress 
and  trouble.  We  may  profitably  examine  these  doc- 
uments for  the  sake  of  getting  some  adequate  impres- 
sion of  the  stage  of  development  to  which  a  portion 
of  the  human  race  had  at  that  time  attained. 

In  Kakimna's  treatise  on  manners  ^*^  we  find  cau- 
tions against  gluttony  which  remind  us  of  the  prov- 
erbs of  Solomon,  some  of  which  may  indeed  be  the 
source  from  which  the  latter  w^re  drawn.  This,  for 
example:  "  If  thou  sittest  down  to  eat  with  a  glutton, 
to  keep  up  with  him  in  eating  will  lead  afar."  "  If 
thou  sittest  down  to  eat  with  a  number,  despise  the 
dishes  which  thou  lovest.  It  is  but  a  short  time  to 
restrain  thyself;  and  voracity  is  something  degrading, 
for  there  is  bestiality  in  it."  "  He  wdio  is  drawn 
away  by  his  stomach  when  he  is  not  on  the  watch 
is  a  worthless  man.  With  such  people  the  stomach 
is   master." 

Among  these  maxims,  also,  we  find  this  in  com- 
mendation of  good  manners:  "As  for  a  man  lacking 
good   manners  .   .   .   who  wears  a  surly   face  towards 


7V/C  Ilisforicdl  Evidence  53 

till'  advances  of  a  livacious  heart,  lie  is  an  affliction 
to  his  mother  and  his  rehitivcs."  The  interest  of 
Kakimna  in  the  instruction  of  children  is  worthy  of 
special  note:  "  Do  not,"  he  says,  "harden  the  hearts 
of  thy  children.  Instruct  those  who  will  be  in  thy 
place.  .  .  .  Let  the  chief  talk  to  his  children  after  he 
has  L;ained  experience.  They  will  i^ain  honor  for 
themselves  by  increasing  in  well-doing,  starting  from 
that  which  he  has  told  them." 

Most  instructive  of  all  in  this  most  ancient  relic 
of  human  literature  is  the  noble  conception  of  the 
Deity  appearing  In  It.  God  Is  referred  to  In  the 
singular  number,  as  bringing  to  pass  events  which 
cannot  be  foreknown  by  man. 

In  like  manner  the  larger  collection  of  precepts 
made  by  Ptah-Hotep  In  the  Fifth  Dynasty  reveal  a 
highly  cultivated,  gentle,  generous,  and  virtuous  man 
enforcing  on  the  court  of  Pharaoh  the  precepts  which 
he  himself  practised,  and  this  nearly  three  thousand 
years  before  the  beginning  of  Grecian  history.  From 
this  single  treatise,  the  translation  of  wluch  would 
occupy  about  twenty  pages  of  a  duodecimo  volume, 
one  Is  led  to  form  a  very  high  estimate  both  of  the 
progress  In  civilization  already  attained  and  of  the 
standard  of  public  morals  which  was  cherished  and 
inculcated.     We  do   Indeed   learn   that  then,   as  now, 


54  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

"  there  are  people  who  take  all  sides  when  they  speak, 
so  that,  by  not  replying,  they  may  not  grieve  the  one 
who  has  made  a  statement."  But  this  Is  not  the 
course  of  conduct  commended,  for  elsewhere  he  says, 
"  When  thou  speakest,  know  what  objections  may 
be  made  to  thee.  ...  To  speak  In  counsel  Is  an  art, 
and  speech  Is  criticised  more  than  all  other  work; 
It  Is  contradiction  which  puts  It  to  the  proof." 

Of  the  desirability  of  controlling  one's  temper 
Ptah-Hotep  speaks  as  follow^s:  "If  thou  hast  to  do 
with  a  disputer  while  he  Is  In  his  heat,  and  If  he  Is 
superior  to  thee  In  ability,  lower  the  hands,  bend  the 
back,  do  not  get  Into  a  passion  with  him.  As  he  will 
not  permit  thee  to  spoil  his  speech,  it  is  ver}^  wrong 
to  interrupt  him;  that  shows  thou  art  not  able  to  be 
quiet  when  thou  art  contradicted.  If  then  thou  hast 
to  do  with  a  disputer  while  he  is  in  his  heat,  act  as 
one  not  to  be  moved.  Thou  hast  the  advantage  over 
him,  if  only  In  keeping  silent  when  his  speech  is  bad. 
...  If  thou  hast  to  do  with  a  disputer  w^hile  he  is  in 
his  heat,  do  not  treat  him  with  contempt  because  thou 
art  not  of  the  same  opinion.  Do  not  be  provoked 
with  him  when  he  is  wrong.  ...  He  is  fighting 
against  his  very  self;  do  not  ask  him  to  flatter  thy 
views.  Do  not  anuise  thyself  with  the  spectacle 
which    thou    hast    before    thee;   this   is   odious,    small. 


The  llhtorical  Evidence  55 

and  of  a  contemptible  spirit."  And  yet  ajzain,  "  If 
thou  aimest  at  haviivj;  polished  manners,  do  not  ques- 
tion him  whom  thou  meetest.  Converse  with  him 
alone  so  as  not  to  annoy  him.  Uo  not  dispute  with 
him  until  thou  hast  allowed  him  time  to  impregnate 
his  mind  with  the  subject  of  the  conversation.  If  he 
displays  his  ignorance,  and  if  he  gives  thee  an  oppor- 
tunity to  put  him  to  shame,  rather  than  that,  treat 
him  with  consideration;  do  not  keep  pushing  him  on, 
do  not  reply  in  a  crushing  manner;  do  not  finish  hmi ; 
do  not  worry  his  life  out,  for  fear  that  he  for  his 
part  will  not  recover,  and  that  men  will  leave  thee  to 
the  benefit  of  thy  conversation." 

Especially  interesting  are  the  instructions  given 
concerning  the  proper  treatment  of  one's  wife  and  of 
his  neighbors.  "  Do  not,"  he  says,  "  give  way  to  thv 
temper  on  account  of  what  occurs  around  thee;  do 
not  scold  except  about  thine  affairs.  Do  not  be  in  a 
bad  temper  towards  thy  neighbors;  a  compliment  to 
him  who  gives  offense  is  better  than  rudeness.  It  is 
wrong  for  a  man  to  get  in  a  passion  with  neighbors, 
so  that  he  knows  not  how  to  manage  his  words. 
Where  there  is  only  a  little  difficulty,  he  creates  an 
affliction  for  himself  at  a  time  when  he  should  be 
cool." 

"  If    thou    art    wise,    take    care    of   thy   house,    love 


56  Origin  (ind  Jfitir/uity  of  III  an 

thy  wife  purely.  Fill  her  stomach,  clothe  her  back; 
these  are  the  cares  to  her  body.  Caress  her,  fulfill 
her  desire  during  the  time  of  thine  existence;  it  is 
a  kindness  which  honors  its  master.  Be  not  brutal ; 
consideration  will  lead  her  better  than  force.  .  .  . 
This  establishes  her  in  thine  house ;  if  thou  repellest 
her,  it  is  an  abyss.  Open  thine  arms  to  her  for  her 
arms;  call  her,  show  her  thy  love.  ...  If  thou  takest 
a  wife,  may  she  be  more  content  than  any  other  of 
her  fellow-citizens.  She  will  be  doubly  bound  if  the 
chain  is  sweet  to  her.  Do  not  repulse  her;  grant 
that  which  pleases  her;  it  is  when  contented  that  she 
will  value  thy  guidance." 

All  this,  and  much  more  equally  good  and  inter- 
esting, was  written  by  a  w^ise  man  living  under  the 
dynasties  that  built  the  pyramids,  —  probably  not  far 
from  two  thousand  years  before  Abraham  went  down 
to  Egypt  to  share  the  hospitality  of  its  rulers  during 
a  time  of  famine.  But  even  then  this  was  ancient  wis- 
dom;  and  Ptah-Hotep  commends  it  as  such,  "which 
if  his  readers  heed,  their  wisdom  will  be  ever  incrcas- 
ing." 

ANTIQUITY    OF    CIVILIZATION    IN    CENTRAL    ASIA 

Though  written  records  are  absent  we  have  such 
indications    of    the    rise    of    civilization    in    Turkestan 


77/r  Ilistor'icdl  Evidence  57 

even  earlicM-  x\vm\  tliat  in  I)ab\l()nia  and  Iv^\pt,  that 
this  is  the  hcst  place  to  pause  and  consider  it.  Indeed, 
here,  in  the  ;j:reat  landlocked  basin  of  the  Aral  and 
Caspian  seas  would  seem  to  be  the  center  from  which 
there  have  radiated  to  all  parts  of  the  world  most 
of  the  arts  and  practices  which  are  fundamental  to 
civilization.  Fully  to  appreciate  the  evidence,  how- 
ever, the  general  physiop;raphic  features  of  the  re^zion 
must  be  kept  in  mind. 

The  Aral-Caspian  depression  occupies  an  area  in 
Western  Asia  about  as  large  as  the  United  States, 
receiving  the  drainage  of  the  Volga  River  from  the 
plains  of  Central  Russia  and  of  the  ancient  Oxus  and 
the  Jaxartes  which  come  down  from  the  Pamir  —  the 
roof  of  the  world  in  Central  Asia.  Upon  the  south 
it  is  bounded  for  more  than  three  thousand  miles  by 
the  highest  mountain  ranges  of  the  world  over  which 
passes  are  few  and  difficult  to  traverse.  The  northern 
face  of  these  mountain  ranges  presents  a  steep  slope 
to  plains  which  extend  without  important  elevations 
to  the  Arctic  Ocean  more  than  two  thousand  miles 
distant.  Mt.  Demavend  in  the  Ararat  range  is 
18,600  feet  above  the  sea;  while  the  bottom  of  the 
Caspian  Sea  only  one  hundred  miles  distant  is  2,300 
feet  below  ocean  level,  making  a  descent  of  21,00c:) 
feet    in    two   himdred    miles.      The    rainfall   over   this 


^8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

area  is  so  slight  and  the  evaporation  so  rapid  that 
there  is  no  surplus  water  to  flow  from  it  into  the 
ocean.  Large  areas  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea  are  now 
deserts  almost  entirely  devoid  of  life;  but,  extending 
out  for  a  considerable  distance  north  from  the  base 
of  the  southern  mountains,  there  is  a  fertile  belt  of 
soil  which  only  needs  a  bountiful  supply  of  water  to 
make  it  extremely  productive,  and  a  partial  supply  of 
water  is  furnished  by  the  innumerable  streams  large 
and  small  which  descend  from  the  snowxlad  moun- 
tains on  the  south. 

From  the  earliest  times  this  belt  of  irrigated  land 
which  forms  the  southern  border  of  Turkestan  has 
been  densely  populated  by  man,  and  has  been  the 
habitat  of  a  greater  variety  of  plants  and  animals 
than  can  be  found  in  any  other  single  section  of  the 
world.  In  this  area  was  the  ancient  city  of  Merv, 
reputed  to  have  had  1,000,000  inhabitants  in  the 
time  of  the  Greco-Bactrian  Kingdom  in  the  third 
century  before  Christ.  Here  was  Maracanda  (the 
modern  Samarkand),  of  equal  size,  which  was  the 
limit  of  Alexander's  conquests  in  that  section ;  and 
Balk,  another  city  of  equal  size,  containing  the  tomb 
of  Zoroaster  and  reputed  to  be  the  center  where  the 
Parsec  religion  originated.  In  later  times  the  hordes 
of  Genghis  Khan  moved   from  Eastern  Asia  through 


llic  flisforirti/  Kv'idcnrc  59 

this  irriizatcd  belt  to  tlicir  conquest  of  the  hir;^a'r  part 
of  the  western  world  ;  while  under  Timur  the  Tar- 
tar Samarkand  arose  with  a  splendor  of  architecture 
and  a  wealth  of  learning  that  still  dazzle  the  his- 
torian  and  the  traveller. 

Throup;hoiit  its  entire  length  this  arable  border  be- 
tween the  mountains  and  the  desert  is  dotted  with 
mounds  which  cover  the  ruins  of  prehistoric  cities  and 
villages.  But  until  recently  none  of  these  has  been 
excavated  with  any  reasonable  care  or  thoroughness. 

In  1903  and  1904,  however,  Professor  Raphael 
Pumpelly  with  an  ample  corps  of  expert  assistants 
was  commissioned  by  the  Carnegie  Institute  at  Wash- 
ington to  excavate  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  groups 
of  mounds  and  to  throw  upon  the  results  what  light 
he  could  from  a  general  study  of  the  geological, 
physiographical,  and  biological  facts  connected  with 
them.  The  mounds,  or  "  Kurgans,"  investigated  were 
two,  near  the  recently  abandoned  city  of  Anau  not 
far  from  the  city  of  Askabad,  about  three  hundred 
miles  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  Anau  owed  its  exist- 
ence to  a  fertile  oasis  watered  by  a  perennial  stream 
which  descends  from  the  heights  of  the  Kopet-Dagh 
not  many  miles  to  the  south.  Owing  to  the  shifting 
course  of  the  irrigating  stream,  the  center  of  the 
oasis  has  migrated  some  distance  to  the  westward,  so 


llic  I lisforical  Evidence  ()\ 

tliat  the  city,  whicli  i"n  its  turn  was  ilcscrtcil  by  the 
stream  about  the  niicKlle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is 
a  mile  or  more  distant  trom  the  two  prehistoric  Kur- 
gans  which  ^^•ere  invcstiii;ated. 

The  city  of  Anau  was  founded  about  370  a.d. 
when  irlazed  notter\  was  first  introduced  into  the 
region.  The  mound  which  represented  the  site  of  the 
ancient  city  is  an  accumulation  of  soil  and  debris 
arisinij;  from  the  disintegration  of  the  sun-dried  brick, 
out  of  w4iich  all  the  houses  ot  that  region  have  been 
built  from  time  immemorial.  The  summit  of  the 
mound  is  thirtv-eight  feet  abo\e  the  original  ivase  but 
only  about  twenty  feet  above  the  present  level  of  the 
plain,  which  has  been  built  up  by  the  sediment  of  the 
irrigating  stream  and  the  dust  brought  in  by  the 
winds,  until  the  base  is  now  buried  to  a  depth  of  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  feet.  But  the  beginning  of  the 
accumulations  which  formed  the  mound  of  the  re- 
cently deserted  cit}'  dates  only  from  the  time  of  the 
abandonment  of  the  later  of  the  two  older  Kurgans 
referred  to,  each  of  which  now  rises  about  forty  feet 
above  the  plain  and  seventy  above  its  original  base. 

By  elaborate  and  careful  estimation  of  the  rate  at 
w^hich  these  accumulations,  both  artificial  and  natural, 
occur,  the  conclusion  is  reached  that  the  older  Kur- 
gan  was   first  occupied   by  man   about  eight   thousand 


62  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

years  before  Christ.  Examination  of  the  successive 
superincumbent  strata  of  accumulation  sheds  interest- 
ing light  upon  the  character  of  the  successive  civiliza- 
tions that  prevailed  and  upon  the  date  of  the  various 
inventions  and  discoveries  which  have  spread  from 
this  center,  and  which,  in  all  later  times,  have  formed 
the  principal  basis  of  human  comfort  and  progress. 

In  the  lowest  strata,  the  bones  of  wild  animals 
only  were  found,  which  it  would  seem  had  been 
hunted  without  the  assistance  of  even  stone  imple- 
ments. A  little  higher  up,  there  begin  to  appear  the 
bones  of  the  domesticated  ox  and  pig  which  accom- 
panied civilized  man  over  the  whole  Northern  Hemis- 
phere throughout  all  the  succeeding  centuries.  In 
still  higher  strata  there  appear  the  bones  of  domesti- 
cated sheep  and  an  occasional  object  of  copper  and 
lead,  and  soon  after  the  bones  of  short-horned  cattle, 
of  the  dog,  the  camel,  and  of  the  hornless  sheep  and 
goat.  All  these  indications  occur  in  the  older  of  the 
Kurgans,  representing  the  accumulations  of  about 
3,000  years  when  it  was  abandoned  and  the  founda- 
tions of  the  south  Kurgan  were  laid  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  distant.  The  beginning  of  this  accumula- 
tion is  estimated  to  be  fifty-two  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  but  it  is  not  until  forty  feet  of  accumulation 
had  taken  place  and  fifteen  hundred  years  had  elapsed 


The  Historical  Evidence  63 

that  stone  arrow  points  appeared  in  the  debris  and 
various  implements  indicating  progress  in  agriculture. 
According  to  Pumpelly's  ^^  summar>^  of  results, 
during  the  growth  of  the  north  Kurgan  extending,  as 
he  estimates,  from  8cxx)  B.C.  to  5000  B.C.  the  in- 
habitants cultivated  wheat  and  barley,  made  use  of 
numerous  implements  of  bone,  used  straightedged 
flakes  of  flint,  and  stones  for  grinding  meal,  had 
hand-made  painted  pottery  with  only  geometrical  de- 
signs, and  had  succeeded  in  domesticating  the  long- 
horned  ox,  the  pig,  and  horse,  and  two  breeds  of 
sheep,  while  they  practised  the  burial  of  children  in 
a  contracted  position  beneath  the  floor  of  their  dwell- 
ings. But  they  were  not  familiar  with  the  dog,  the 
camel,  or  the  goat,  and  they  made  no  use  of  spear 
points,  either  of  stone  or  metal,  until  near  the  close 
of  the  period. 

In  the  south  Kurgan  arrow  points  of  stone  and 
obsidian  appear,  together  with  pivoted  door  stones, 
and  weapons  and  implements  of  copper.  The  pot- 
tery indicates  the  use  of  the  potter's  wheel  and  fur- 
nace. There  were  also  found  terra  cotta  figurines  of 
a  goddess  and  cow.  but  there  was  no  iron  or  burnt 
brick  or  bronze.  Hie  terra  cotta  figurines  indicate 
a  religious  cult  like  that  which  prevailed  later  m 
Babvlonia  and   among  the  Phcrnicians. 


64  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Between  this  era  characterized  by  the  use  of  cop- 
per, closing  about  two  thousand  years  before  Christ, 
and  the  age  of  iron  introduced  shortly  before  the 
Christian  era,  there  intervenes  a  mysterious  gap  in 
the  evidence,  during  which  the  Kurgan  was  evidently 
unoccupied. 

Everything  seems  to  indicate  an  independent  ori- 
gin for  the  arts  and  usages  of  domestic  life  in  this 
locality,  and  the  spread  of  domesticated  plants  and 
animals  from  this  center  westward  throughout  Eu- 
rope during  the  neolithic  period ;  while  the  diminution 
of  the  domestic  animals  in  size  and  the  introduction 
of  the  camel  would  seem  to  indicate  the  general 
desiccation  of  the  region,  of  which  there  is  abundant 
other  evidence  from   geological  indications. 

CONCLUDING    REMARKS 

But  here  we  may  well  pause  In  the  presentation  of 
the  direct  historical  evidence.  The  facts  presented 
are  certainly  most  surprising  and  significant.  At  the 
first  dawn  of  history,  and  earlier  by  thousands  of 
years,  than  the  classic  era  of  Greece,  we  find  in  Crete, 
Egypt,  Babylonia,  and  Central  Asia  military,  polit- 
ical, and  social  organizations  w^orthy  of  the  highest 
regard  and  in  many  respects  fit  to  be  an  example  to 
all    subsequent    ages.      We   shall    be    fortunate    If    we 


The  Il'istoricdl  FA'idcncc  65 

succeed  in  restorin<x  the  irriizatiiijj;  systems  in  opera- 
tion six  thousand  or  >^even  thousand  years  a^o  in  the 
valleys  of  the  MurLi;ab,  the  Kuphrates,  and  the  Nile. 
We  find  in  Kp;ypt  at  that  early  period  a  conception  of 
the  Deitv  nobler  than  that  to  which  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle attained,  an  appreciation  of  the  family  scarcely 
less  commendable  than  that  of  modern  times,  and  in 
all  these  centers  a  progress  in  the  arts  only  lackinj^ 
inventions  of  steam  and  electricity  to  make  it  equal 
to  that  of  the  present  time. 

The  questions,  pertinent  to  our  present  discussion, 
arisins:  in  connection  with  these  facts,  are,  How  came 
this  civilization  to  appear  so  early  in  the  history  of 
the  race?  Why  has  there  been  so  little  progress 
since?  In  the  natural  course  of  events,  how  long  a 
time  would  be  required  for  man  to  attain  the  point 
in  civilization  reached  in  these  countries  six  thousand 
or  seven  thousand  years  ago?  A  brief  answer  to 
these  inquiries  will  suffice.  First,  there  is  no  evidence, 
but  on  the  contrary  it  is  against  all  evidence,  that  the 
road  to  this  earliest  attainment  of  high  civilization 
was  that  of  an  extremely  slow  and  gradual  evolution. 
It  is  true,  for  example,  that  the  way  had  been  pre- 
pared, by  the  increase  of  population  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  numerous  social  virtues  in  Kg\pt,  for  the 
rapid  progress  which   began   with  the  establishment  at 


66  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Thenis  of  the  P'irst  Dynasty.  But  the  real  secret  of 
the  progress  beginning  with  Menes  is,  that  Menes 
was  a  great  man :  he  had  the  necessary  wisdom  and 
foresight  and  organizing  ability  to  make  the  culti- 
vation of  the  arts  of  civilization  among  his  subjects 
a  matter  of  advantage  to  them.  In  the  realm  of 
politics  and  social  order  he  did  for  Egj'pt  what  Peter 
the  Great  did  for  Russia,  and  Watt  and  Stevenson 
for  the  industrial  systems  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  wonder  is  that  the  wisdom  of  Egj^pt  did  not 
speedily  fill  the  world.  The  same  may  be  affirmed 
of  the  unknow^n  promoters  of  the  earliest  civilization 
in  Babylonia  and  Turkestan. 

This  leads  us  to  an  answ^er  to  the  second  question, 
namely,  that  there  is  no  invariable  law  of  progress 
in  human  history.  The  various  elements  at  work  in 
societv  tend  m  all  directions.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
degeneration  and  disintegration  seem  as  likely  to 
take  place  as  real  progress  and  advancement.  Among 
the  common  people  in  Egypt  there  has  been  no  prog- 
ress for  six  thousand  years,  and  the  same  is  true  re- 
specting most  ancient  centers  of  civilization.  Neither 
in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  nor  in  China  has  there 
been  any  progress  since  the  very  dawn  of  histon^  As 
Dr.  Brugsch  has  observed,  the  Fellahin  of  Lower 
Egypt    *'  preserve    to    this    day    those    distinctive    fea- 


The  IJisiorical  Kvidcncc  67 

turcs  of  physiognomy,  and  those  peculiarities  of  man- 
ners and  customs,  ^vhich  have  been  handed  down  to 
us  by  the  united  testimony  of  the  monuments  and  the 
accounts  of  the  ancient  classical  writers  as  the  heredi- 
tary characteristics  of  this  people."  ^'-  It  would  re- 
quire a  prophet's  vision  to  tell,  whether,  in  the  natural 
course  of  events  if  things  were  left  to  themselves, 
there  would  be  any  more  progress  in  that  region  in 
the  next  six  thousand  years. 

Evidently  the  progress  of  the  human  race  has  not 
been  by  spontaneous  and  uniform  evolution.  The 
civilization  of  Europe  and  America  lighted  its  torch 
from  the  altars  of  the  decaying  civilization  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  they,  in  turn,  lighted  theirs  from 
altars  of  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  wisdom.  But 
whence  did  Egypt  and  Babylonia  derive  the  fire 
with  which  to  kindle  the  flame  upon  their  altars? 
This  mystery  is  so  great  that  ue  are  forbidden  to 
speak  with  derision  of  those  who  insist  that  the  wis- 
dom of  Egypt  was  given  by  direct  inspiration  from 
heaven  or  was  handed  down  from  a  prior  original 
direct  revelation.  We  prefer,  however,  to  say  that 
its  mystery  is  that  which  surrounds  all  the  great 
geniuses  whose  careers  have  swayed  and  blessed  or 
cursed  the  world.  As  already  remarked,  a  candid 
study  of   history  will   compel   one   more   and  more   to 


68  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

recognize  the  dependence  of  the  race  upon  a  few 
great  leaders  in  thought  and  action.  It  is  often  said, 
as  already  intimated,  that  if  there  had  not  been  an 
Alexander  to  lead  the  forces  of  Greece  against  the 
Persian  borders,  a  man  of  some  other  name  would 
have  led  them  into  corresponding  victories.  But  for 
this  assumption  there  is  no  just  ground.  When  Alex- 
ander died,  his  kingdom  went  to  pieces.  The  Egyp- 
tian sovereigns  were  a  long  line  of  illustrious  men. 
It  is  easier  to  account  for  the  continued  propagation 
of  their  plans  and  purposes  than  it  is  to  explain  either 
their  origin  or  their  final  decadence  and  transporta- 
tion to  other  lands. 

To  the  third  question,  How  long  a  time  would  be 
required  for  a  primitive  race  to  rise  to  the  height  of 
progress  existing,  for  example,  in  Egypt  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  first  dynasty?  it  must  be  answered  that 
there  is  no  known  law  of  progress  sufficiently  uni- 
form in  its  operation  to  afford  a  basis  for  calculation. 
The  being  that  has  capacity  to  invent  the  use  of  fire, 
that  is  able  to  make  flint  implements  (and  what  is 
more  to  make  a  living  with  them  alone)  and  that 
has  created  an  elaborate  language  for  the  communi- 
cation of  ideas,  is  not  far  separated  from  the  men  w^ho 
can  build  pyramids,  convey  their  thoughts  by  hiero- 
glyphs,  and   organize   their  companions  for  home  de- 


The  TJistorical  Kvidcucc  69 

fense  and  forci<:;n  conquest.  It  requires  but  the 
accident  of  their  possessing  anion^  their  number  a 
genius,  to  determine  whether  the  hij^her  civih'zation 
shall  be  within  their  reacli.  An  impressive  fact  re- 
specting the  early  civilization  of  Egypt  and  Baby- 
lonia is  that  it  already  had  been  preceded  by  the 
discovery  of  a  method  for  the  smelting  and  hardening 
of  iron,  which  is  probably  the  most  far-reaching  and 
important  invention  ever  made  by  man.  Among  the 
earliest  enterprises  in  which  the  monarchs  of  the  first 
Egyptian  dynasty  engaged  was  that  of  conducting 
expeditions  into  the  wadies  of  the  Mount  Sinai  dis- 
trict for  the  purpose  of  working  in  the  mines  of  that 
now  desolate  region. 

The  civih'zation  of  P^gjpt  and  Babylonia  may  pos- 
sibly have  been  preceded  by  many  tliousand  years  of 
uneventful  human  history,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we 
are  left  to  judge  simply  from  the  record  of  human 
progress  directly  within  our  knowledge,  it  may  have 
been  preceded  only  by  one  or  two  thousand  years  of 
man's  more  primiti\-e  state.  For  it  is  quite  possible, 
as  a  simple  calculation  in  geometrical  progression  will 
show,  for  the  race,  starting  from  a  single  pair,  to 
have  so  multiplied  and  covered  the  earth  in  a  thou- 
sand years  as  to  furnish  all  the  population  of  which 
the   written    record   of   Egypt   gives   any   indication   in 


yo  Origin  and  Jnfiquify  of  Man 

the  time  of  the  First  Dynasty.  There  may,  indeed, 
have  been  many  thousands  of  years  of  weary  prepara- 
tion for  the  incoming  civilization  of  the  Pharaohs; 
but  the  study  of  history  furnishes  us  no  trustworthy 
data  for  such  an  inference.  The  inference  cannot 
rationally  be  based  upon  a  few  high-sounding  phrases 
such  as  the  "  doctrine  of  evolution,"  "  the  law  of 
progress,"  and  "  the  principles  of  development."  Ours 
is  the  more  difficult,  but  at  the  same  time  more  pleas- 
ing and  satisfactory,  duty  of  investigating  the  evi- 
dence buried  in  the  geological  strata  in  which  man's 
earliest  remains  have  been  found,  and  of  considering 
the  inferences  drawn  from  the  facts  which  ally  man 
in  his  physical  and  mental  development  w^ith  that  of 
the  rest  of  the  animal  kingdom.  But  before  venturing 
upon  these  inquiries,  we  must  pause,  to  consider  the 
evidence  concerning  man's  origin  and  antiquity  which 
may  be  derived  from  the  diversity  of  languages  which 
has  characterized  the  human  race  since  the  very 
dawn  of  history. 


Tlir  lAiii^iiislic  /hi^Nffirnt  71 

CflAPTER    III 

THE  LINGUISTIC  ARGUMENT 

Ix  the  preceding  chapter,  our  study  of  the  earliest 
historical  records  has  carried  us  back  to  a  point  of 
time  four  or  five  thousand  years  before  Christ,  or 
from  six  to  seven  thousand  years  ago.  At  that  time 
we  found  a  highly  developed  civilization  in  the  val- 
leys of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  In  these  coun- 
tries the  art  of  writing  was  already  in  use,  and  the 
language  had  entered  upon  that  stage  of  systematic 
and  orderly  development  which  is  secured  by  the 
conservative  influence  of  literature. 

In  the  valley  of  the  pAiphrates  a  branch  of  the 
Semitic  language  appears  in  full  development  in 
the  earliest  monumental  records.  Just  what  relation 
there  Is  between  the  cuneiform  Inscriptions  upon  the 
tablets  and  m.onuments  of  Babylonia  and  the  rich  lit- 
erature that  appeared  at  a  later  date  in  Palestine,  we 
cannot  now  determine;  but  though  the  form  of  the 
letters  Is  different  the  grammatical  structure  of  the 
Inscriptions  upon  the  monuments  Is  closely  related  to 
that  of  the  Hebrew  language.  Many  of  their  root 
words   are   identical,    and    their   mode   of    inflection    is 


72  Oriorin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

similar;  so  that  there  is  no  greater  difficulty  in  sup- 
posing them  to  be  descendants  from  the  same  mother 
tongue,  than  there  is  in  crediting  the  well-known 
historical  fact  that  Italian,  Spanish,  and  French  are 
variations  of  the  Latin. 

To  the  Phoenicians  upon  the  shore  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean we  have  generally  given  the  credit  of  the  in- 
vention of  the  modern  alphabet,  and  they  in  turn  are 
supposed  to  have  been  largely  indebted  to  Egypt. 
Whether  Abraham  brought  with  him  from  Mesopo- 
tamia the  Hebrew  letters  as  well  as  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage has  not  yet  been  determined.  The  more  probable 
theory  is  that  he  found  both  the  dialect  and  the 
rudiments  of  the  literature,  already  developed  among 
the  cultured  Canaanites  that  had  so  long  inhabited 
the  land,  and  who  had  been  in  close  contact  with  the 
adventurous  and  enterprising  people  inhabiting  the 
cities  of  Tyre  and  Sidon.^  There  are  also  other  rea- 
sons for  reaching  the  same  conclusion.  The  Elamite 
king  Kudur-Mabug  calls  himself  Adda  Martu,  or 
"Prince  of  the  Land  of  Amurru  "  (Palestine  and 
Syria),  and  an  inscription  of  Lugal-zaggisi,  about 
4000  B.C.,  shows  that  he  conquered  the  land  from 
the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  in- 
scription is  in  the  Museum  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,    in     Philadelphia.     Such    intimate    con- 


The  Liniriiis/ic  Ari^iuiiciit  73 

tact  tor  two  thoiisaiul  \cars  as  this  implies,  coiiKl 
hai\ll\-  tail  to  involve  kno\vletl;j;e  of  the  dialect  and 
literature  of  the  dominant  country,  and  the  Tel-cl- 
Amarna  tablets  seem  to  iridicate  clearly  that  that  was 
the  case. 

The  affinities  of  the  lanjc^uage  found  upon  the  early 
monuments  of  Egypt  cannot  be  wholly  made  out ;  but 
it  is  evident  that  they  had  at  least  a  remote  relation- 
ship to  the  Semitic  languages  of  Palestine  and  Baby- 
lonia; for,  though  the  words  are  mostly  different  and 
formed  upon  a  different  plan,  the  inflections  are 
somewhat  similar.  At  any  rate,  they  are  much  closer 
in  their  analogy  to  the  Semitic  than  they  are  to  any 
other  group  of  languages,  except  it  be  to  some  of  the 
more  obscure  tongues  of  Africa.-  The  language  was 
long  preserved  in  the  Coptic,  which  has  become  ex- 
tinct only  within  the  last  two  or  three  hundred  years, 
and  which  produced  considerable  literature  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Christian  era. 

The  divergence  between  the  language  of  Egypt  and 
that  of  Babylonia,  found  to  exist  at  the  earliest  dawn 
of  history,  is  very  significant  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
subject  of  our  present  discussion.  For,  these  lan- 
guages probably  are  not  lineally  descended  the  one 
from  the  other,  but  are  both  variants  from  some 
earlier   form   of  speech    that   had   been   lost   from   the 


74  Orifr'm  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

face  of  the  earth  for  a  longer  time  than  that  which 
separates  us  from  the  period  when  Latin  was  a  living 
tongue.  The  relation  between  the  Egj^ptian  and  Se- 
mitic languages  may  more  properly  be  compared  to 
that  between  the  English  and  the  Greek,  where  the 
divergence  is  so  great  that  it  points  to  a  mother 
tongue  far  back  in  the  vistas  of  time.  We  shall 
therefore  be  able  to  draw  some  inferences  concerning 
the  antiquity  of  man  from  the  extent  of  this  diver- 
gence of  language  which  appears  on  comparing  the 
cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  with 
the  hieroglyphics  which  abound  on  Egyptian  monu- 
ments and  in  Egyptian  tombs  of  the  earliest  date.  If 
these  monuments  are  six  thousand  years  old,  how 
much  earlier  must  have  been  the  dawn  of  that  civili- 
zation which  led  two  nations  so  far  apart  in  their 
forms  of  expression  as  we  find  the  Babylonians  and 
Egyptians  already  to  be  four  thousand  years  before 
the  Christian  era.     This  is  the  problem. 

THE    INFLECTIONAL    LANGUAGES 

But  we  are  able  to  get  upon  a  still  higher  mount 
of  vision,  and  look  across  a  still  ^^■ider  chasm  separ- 
ating the  Semitic  languages  from  that  branch  of  the 
human  speech  which  the  principal  civilized  nations 
now   employ   to   convey   their   thoughts.      The   Greek 


The  Linguistic  Argument  75 

the  Latin,  the  German,  the  Russian,  and  the  En<j;lish 
lanG;iiages  (together  with  some  others  in  FAirope,  sueh 
as  the  Gaeh'c  and  the  Scandinavian),  the  Sanscrit 
(the  dead  cLassic  Language  of  India,  rich  in  an  an- 
cient literature),  and  the  Persian,  constitute  what  are 
called  the  Ar^an  or  Indo-European  tongues.  In  one 
respect  the  Aryan  languages  and  the  Semitic  are  simi- 
lar; and,  in  the  great  threefold  division  into  which  the 
languages  of  the  world  have  sometimes  been  classi- 
fied, they  are  capable  of  being  joined  together.  Both 
are  what  are  called  "  inflectional  "  languages.  The 
ideas  of  person,  number,  and  tense,  are  conveyed  by 
slight  changes  in  the  form  of  the  word  itself,  and  by 
affixes  and  suffixes  which  are  made  integral  parts  of 
the  words  to  which  they  are  joined.  But  the  mode 
of  inflectional  development  is  so  diflFerent  in  the  Se- 
mitic tongues  from  that  in  the  Aryan,  and  the  root 
words  themselves  are  so  distinct,  and  formed  on 
such  a  separate  principle,  that  they  seem  as  far  apart 
as  the  poles. 

For  example,  in  the  Semitic  languages  the  verb  can 
alwa3's  be  traced  back  to  a  root,  containing  three  con- 
sonants. \\hich  conveys  the  essential,  abstract  idea  of 
the  action  or  state.  The  vowels  which  are  introduced 
constitute  the  inflection,  and  determine  the  relations 
of  the  actions  to   the   various   persons  or  things  con- 


76  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ccrned.  P'or  instance,  the  familiar  word  upon  which 
Hebrew  students  commonly  he^in  their  study  of  the 
language  is  one  signifying  '*  to  kill,"  qatal.  The  con- 
sonants are  q-t-1.  Qatala  means  "  he  killed  " ;  qutila, 
"he  was  killed";  qiitiiu,  "they  were  killed";  uqtul, 
the  imperative,  "kill";  iqtal,  "cause  to  kill";  etc., 
the  three  consonants  appearing  in  every  form  and  the 
change  in  the  vowels  indicating  the  relational  aspects 
of  the  verbal  idea.  So  important  are  these  conso- 
nantal elements  of  Hebrew  words,  that  the  whole 
idea  can  be  expressed  to  the  ej^e  without  vowels;  and 
for  ages  the  Hebrew  writing  was  composed  entirely 
of  consonants,  —  the  vowel  points  in  our  Hebrew 
Scriptures  having  been  added  far  down  in  the  Chris- 
tian centuries.  In  consequence  of  these  characteristics 
of  the  Semitic  languages,  they  present  a  uniformity 
of  structure  quite  different  from  the  inflectional  lan- 
guages derived  from  the  Aryan  which  now  prevail  in 
Europe.  The  all-prevailing  triliteral  Semitic  roots 
doubtless  have  a  history,  and  represent  a  long  pre- 
vious development,  but  that  development  occurred  so 
far  back  in  the  past  as  completely  to  batfle  tlie  efforts 
of  philologists  to  trace  its  course  or  arrive  at  its  sig- 
nificance. In  itself  it  is  an  evidence  of  an  antiquity 
far  higlier  than  that  of  the  oldest  monuments  in  the 
valley  of  the   Euphrates. 


llir  Li  monistic  Jn^uiiniit  77 

In  other  portions  of  its  structure,  also,  the  verhs 
of  these  two  classes  ol  lani2;ua<z;c  differ  greatly.  In 
Semitic  the  verbs  in  the  second  and  third  per>.o!is  in- 
dicate by  their  forms  distinctions  of  gender,  while  the 
indications  of  time  are  confined  to  an  imperfect  inti- 
mation of  the  differences  between  the  completed  and 
the  uncompleted  action,  and  each  tense  is  employed 
to  represent  action  past,  present,  or  future.  Of  what 
we  call  mode  the  Semitic  languages  know  little,  while 
of  conjugations  they  are  exceedingly  prodigal.  They 
have  a  form  of  the  verb  to  express  the  simple  transi- 
tive tense,  as  "he  killed";  another  form  to  indicate 
that  "he  killed  with  violence";  another,  that  "he 
tried  to  kill";  another,  that  "he  caused  to  kill"; 
and  another,  that  "  he  killed  himself,"  these  all  being 
expressed  by  special  conjugations  of  one  root.  In  the 
Arabic  there  are  twelve  or  more  such  conjugations  of 
the   verb. 

In  these,  also,  as  well  as  in  some  other  respects  the 
Semitic  languages  differ  so  radically  from  the  Aryan 
that  if  they  had  a  common  origin,  all  signs  of  it  have 
been  so  completely  lost  that  it  has  seemed  to  most 
people  hopeless  to  search  any  further  for  the  mother 
tongue.'^ 

In  contrast  with  the  simplicity  of  Hebrew  words. 
It  is  mteresting  to  notice  a  single  case  illustrating  the 


78  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

capability  of  an  Aryan  language  to  accumulate  ideas 
by  prefixes  and  suffixes.  Our  word  inapplicabilities  is 
built  up  around  the  simple  root  "  plic,"  which  ap- 
pears in  its  simpler  form  in  the  word  "  plicate,"  mean- 
ing to  fold.  But  "  inapplicabilities  "  contains  two 
prefixes  and  three  suffixes,  while  in  other  words  this 
root  itself  forms  a  suffix,  as  in  "  triple,"  meaning 
threefold,  etc. 

But,  passing  from  the  divergencies  between  the 
different  branches  of  the  inflectional  tongues,  we  find 
a  still  more  radical  division  of  language  in  the  so- 
called  monosyllabic  and  agglutinative  forms  of  speech, 
of  the  first  of  which  the  Chinese  is  a  tj^pical  example, 
and  of  the  second  the  language  of  the  American  In- 
dians. 

THE    MONOSYLLABIC    LANGUAGES 

In  many  respects  the  Chinese  language  corresponds 
more  closely  than  any  other  to  what  one  would  nat- 
urally suppose  to  be  the  original  form  of  human 
speech,  but  it  is  now  the  representative  of  merely  a 
class  of  languages  limited  to  the  southeastern  portion 
of  Asia.  So  sharply  defined  is  the  boundary  of  this 
class  of  languages  that  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  con- 
clusion, not  only  that  they  are  of  common  origin,  but 
that  they  have  been   kept  together  by  local   historical 


The  Linguistic  Ar^^iuiuiit  79 

inrtuences,  while  contrary  to  ordinary  experience,  they 
have  remained  practically  without  change  from  the 
earliest  period  of  our  knowledge  of  them.  Like  the 
Chinese  themselves,  their  literature  and  their  language 
have  long  been  In  a  fossilized  condition.  The  words 
of  these  languages  have  no  inflections,  and  the  same 
word  may  be  used  for  almost  any  part  of  speech,  — 
which  part  it  is,  ha\ing  to  be  gathered  from  the  con- 
nection. 

We  have  in  English  a  few  such  words.  For  instance, 
*'  love  "  may  be  either  a  verb,  a  noun,  or  an  adjec- 
tive; while  the  word  "better"  may  be  an  adjective, 
an  adverb,  a  noun  or  a  verb.  But  such  instances  are 
exceptional  in  the  Aryan  languages,  while  in  the 
Chinese  they  are  the  rule.  Schleicher  ^  represents  a 
Chinese  sentence  in  English  as  follows:  "King 
speak:  Sage!  not  far  thousand  mile  and  come;  also 
will  have  use  gain  me  realm,  hey?"  which,  being 
translated,  means,  "The  king  spoke:  'O  sage!  since 
thou  dost  not  count  a  thousand  miles  far  to  come, 
wilt  thou  not,  too,  have  brought  something  for  the 
weal  of  my  realm?'"  This  sentence  in  itself  shows 
the  advantage  in  clearness  of  the  Aryan  system  of 
inflections  w-hich  brings  out  clearly  the  relation  to 
each  other  of  the  words  used.  To  us  the  Chinese 
language  sounds  like  baby  talk,   and  so  does  what  is 


8o  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

called  "  Pidgin  English  "  (pidgin  being  a  Chinese 
corruption  of  "business")  which  we  instinctively  use 
in  talking  to  a  Chinese. 

Ijut  the  Chinese  language  existed  in  substantially 
its  present  form  tw^o  thousand  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  from  which  time  some  of  the  odes  in  the 
Chinese  book  of  songs  claim  to  date.  Their  annals 
and  traditions  carry  the  history  of  the  nation  several 
centuries  farther  back;  and  certainly  the  great  dif- 
ference between  this  language  and  the  languages  of 
the  Aryan  and  Semitic  races  would  imply  a  very 
high  antiquity.  The  separation  between  the  nations 
must  have  taken  place  long  before  the  earliest  his- 
toric records  which  are  found  upon  the  monuments 
of  Egypt  or  Babylonia;  for,  the  language  of  the 
Egyptians  and  Babylonians  was  already  inflected,  and 
was  composed  of  roots  w^iich  have  only  the  slightest 
similarity  to  the  Chinese.  If  a  long  period  is  re- 
quired to  accovmt  for  the  separation  between  the 
Aryan  and  Semitic  tongues,  it  would  seem  that  a  far 
longer  period  must  be  allowed  to  account  for  the 
rise  and  development  of  the  whole  inflected  class  of 
languages.  It  should  be  remarked,  however,  in  pass- 
ing, that  the  original  language  in  Bab5donia  was 
probnbly  not  a  Semitic  but  an  agglutinative  tongue. 
The  Scnu'tic  invaders  seem  to  have  adopted  both  the 


TJic  L'liii^ii'istic  Ari![iiniciit    '  8 1 

letters  .uid  tlie  cixili/ation  of  the  Sumerians,  who 
were  the  oriuinal  inhahitants  of  Hahyh)nia,  while  re- 
taim'n'j;  their  own   iiiHccted  language. 

THE    AGGLUTINATIVK    LANGUAGES 

Midway  between  the  monosyllabic  and  the  inflected 
languages  stand  the  agglutinative.  This  is  by  far  the 
most  numerous  class  and  apparently  the  one  most 
subject  to  variation.  To  this  class  belong  most  of 
the  languages  of  Africa,  America,  and  the  Islands  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  to  which  may  be  added  that  of  the 
Japanese,  the  Coreans,  the  Dravidians  (in  the  south- 
ern part  of  India),  the  Tartars,  the  Finns,  the  Turks, 
the  Basques,  and  some  others.  In  these  languages, 
some  of  which  have  a  few  inflected  forms,  the  sub- 
sidiar\'  elements  of  the  sentence,  or  concept,  are 
gathered  about  the  central  idea  without  that  close 
articulation  with  it  that  is  found  in  the  inflected  lan- 
guages. The  words  are  segregations  rather  than  or- 
gmiizatinns.  As  Whitney  ^  remarks,  "  Everything  [in 
the  American  languages]  tends  to  verbal  expression: 
nouns,  and  adjectives,  and  even  adverbs  and  preposi- 
tions, are  regularly  conjugated  ;  nouns  are  to  a  great 
extent  verbal  forms."  For  example,  according  to  the 
representation  of  Rev.  S.  G.  Wright,  a  venerable 
m.issionary    among    the    Ojibway    Indians,    the    word 


§2  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

"  father  "  is  not  used  by  itself  in  the  simple  form,  but 
is  conjugated  in  all  the  m.oods  and  tenses,  and  is  com- 
pounded with  the  possessive  pronoun.  Every  father 
must  be  the  father  of  somebody,  —  of  him,  you,  or 
me.  The  root  word  seems  to  be  os,  but  ordinarily  it 
occurs  in  a  verbal  compound ;  mn-do-yo-si,  "  I  have  a 
father";  ki-do-yo-yi,  "thou  hast  a  father";  o-yo-si, 
"  he  has  a  father."  In  the  subjunctive  we  have  kic- 
pui-o-yo-si-yan,  "  if  I  have  a  father,"  etc.  In  the 
optative  mood  it  becomes  klc-ptn-ge-o-yo-si-wd-nen. 
There  is  even  a  double  and  twisted  optative,  as  klc- 
pln-ge-o-yo-si-wdm-ba-nen,  ''  if  I  shall  should  have  a 
father,  as  I  shall  should  have  "  —  conditioned  on 
something,  such  as  that  the  truth  has  been  told. 

The  number  of  words  which  can  be  formed  from 
a  single  root  is  almost  unlimited,  and  the  length  of 
some  of  the  compounds  is  astonishing.  Rev.  Mr. 
Hurlbut  estimates  that  in  Algonquin  17,000,000 
verbal  forms  may  be  made  from  a  single  root.  Mr. 
Trumbull  informs  us  that  m  Eliot's  Massachusetts 
Bible  the  phrase  "  kneeling  down  to  him  "  had  to  be 
translated  by  a  single  word  of  eleven  syllables,  ivut- 
(ippes-ituqussun-nooiveht-unk-quoh,  which  when  drawn 
out  in  full  means,  "  He  came  to  a  state  of  rest  upon 
the  bended  knees,  doing  reverence  unto  him."  «  Cor- 
responding    illustrations     may    be     drawn     from     the 


The  Lini^uist'u    Argument  Sj 

Basque  ]anij;iiage  of  Southwestern  France,  where  "  the 
lower  field  of  the  hio;h  hill  of  Azpicuelta  "  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  one  word  /izpilciiclagaraycosdroyaren- 
herecclarrca,  and  from  the  Eskimo,  \\ho  express  the 
sentence  "  he  goes  hastily  away  and  exerts  himself  to 
write  "  by  the  word  Aglckkig'iartorasuarnipok,  and  from 
the  Sanskrit,  in  which  the  word  bha/z^/apur/^akumb- 
hakarama//^/apikaikadecc  means,  "  in  one  corner  of  a 
little-shop  of  a  jar-maker  (which  was)  filled  with 
earthen-pots."  '  All  the  American  languages  are  con- 
structed essentially  on  this  agglutinative,  or,  what 
has  been  called  by  some  polysynthetic  plan;  but  they 
differ  greatly  in  their  roots,  and  are  subject  to  rapid 
changes.  To  such  an  extent  is  this  true,  according 
to  Whitney,  that  "  there  are  groups  of  kindred 
tribes  whose  separation  is  known  to  be  of  not  very 
long  standing,  but  in  whose  speech  the  correspond- 
ences are  almost  overwhelmed  and  hidden  from  sight 
by  the  discordances  which  have  sprung  up.  In  more 
than  one  tongue  it  has  been  remarked  that  books  of 
instruction  prepared  by  missionaries  have  become  an- 
tiquated and  almost  unintelligible  in  three  or  four 
generations."  ^ 

The  multiplicity  of  linguistic  stocks  in  America  is 
especially  noticeable  on  the  Pacific  coast,  particularly 
m  those  portions  where  subsistence  is  most  easily  ob- 


84  Origin  and  Anliquity  of  Man 

taincd,  and  isolation  of  tribes  most  readily  secured.  Mr. 
Horatio  Hale  ^  when  he  made  the  first  ethnological 
survey  of  Oregon,  found  no  less  than  twelve  linguis- 
tic stocks  in  that  limited  area;  while  Mr.  Stephen 
Powers,  of  the  United  States  Ethnological  Bureau, 
found  sixteen  additional  linguistic  stocks  in  California, 
making,  with  others  that  have  been  added,  no  .less 
than  thirty  distinct  stocks  of  language  among  the 
American  Indians  in  a  territory  no  larger  than  France. 
In  a  subsequent  chapter  evidence  of  an  independent 
character  will  be  adduced  to  show  that  the  Indian 
races  of  America  and  the  Tamils  of  Southern  India 
branched  off  from  a  common  parent  stock,  which  had 
already  come  to  differ  largely  in  their  social  customs 
from  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  races.  But  here  it  is 
worth  while  to  note  that  in  the  community  of  struc- 
ture evident  in  the  languages  of  these  people,  we  have 
additional  evidence  of  a  common  origin  of  these 
races,  and  that  their  separation  dated  back  to  a  time 
subsequent  to  the  beginning  of  that  linguistic  devel- 
opment which  reveals  itself  In  the  three  great  classes 
of  language,  the  monosyllabic,  the  agglutinative,  and 
the  inflectional.  The  agglutinative  tendency,  which 
finally  became  the  main  characteristic  of  many  lan- 
guages, may  indeed  have  served  as  a  stepping-stone, 
or  a  transitional  stage,   from  the  monosyllabic  to  the 


inHectional  toni^iics  so  that  it  may  jet  be  proven  that 
the  Semitic  and  Ar^an  lan^uaires  are  in  a  sense  sis- 
ters of  the  a.Li^lutinative;  hut  at  an}'  rate  the  ch'strihu- 
tion  of  people  spcakinjj^  the  a;j;;j;lutinative  languages 
is  such  as  to  indicate  an  antiquity  far  exceeding  the 
earliest  historical  records  of  the  human  race. 

ANTIQUITY    OF    THE    ARYAX     LANGUAGES 

From  the  words  common  to  the  various  branches 
of  the  Aryan  language  it  is  possible  for  us  to  get  a 
pretty  clear  conception  of  the  advancement  already 
made  by  the  race  before  the  diversification  of  the 
primitive  Aryan  speech  had  proceeded  far.  By  com- 
paring its  various  branches  we  learn  that  the  tribes 
who  spoke  the  mother  tongue  had  made  much  progress 
in  many  things,  and  had  really  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  civilization  already  attained  by  their  remote 
descendants.  As  a  common  heritage  from  this  mother 
tongue,  various  early  but  widely  separated  descend- 
ants received  the  same  words  to  express  the  idea  of 
settled  habitations  and  fortified  places,  and  of  various 
things  connected  with  the  possession  and  rearing  of 
cattle  and  of  cultivating  the  earth.  All  of  these  de- 
scendants used  variations  of  the  same  root  word  in 
naming  the  horse,  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the 
sv.ine,   the   do;r.    the   hear,    the    wolf,    the   mouse,    the 


86  Oricr'iTi  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

dove,  and  probably  the  goose.  They  all  had  a  com- 
mon name  for  night  and  winter,  and  for  wheat,  bar- 
ley, wool,  and  flax  (probably  also  for  hemp),  clothing 
and  the  art  of  weaving.  Their  language  show^s  that 
their  common  ancestors  used  the  short  sword,  or 
heavy  dagger,  the  spear,  the  bow,  and  probably  the 
shield,  and  that  they  manufactured  boats  to  be  moved 
by  oars.  They  all  had  a  fixed  mode  of  designating 
blood  relationships  to  the  third  degree.  They  also 
had  a  common  word  for  hundred,  and  the  language 
shows  that  their  comm.on  ancestors  already  had  a 
name  for  the  moon  and  one  for  the  stars,  and  that 
they  worshipped  the  powders  of  nature  probably  with- 
out the  intervention  of  a  priesthood. 

It  is  important  to  note  in  passing,  that  be^^ond 
reasonable  doubt,  the  original  center  of  the  Aryan 
languages  is  to  be  found  in  the  irrigated  belt  bounding 
the  southern  limit  of  the  Aral-Caspian  depression 
from  which  have  come,  through  Mr.  Pumpelly's  in- 
vestigations, the  early  indications  of  civilization  de- 
scribed in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  civilization  of 
Anau  is  that  of  the  early  Aryans. 

POSSIBLE    RATE    OF    LINGUISTIC    DEVELOPMENT 

In  reasoning  upon  the  data  thus  presented,  so  as 
to   draw   safe   conclusions   from    them   concerning   the 


llic  Lini^ii'istic  Ar'j^iimi'tit  87 

antiquity  of  man,  the  problem  is  to  obtain  a  rate  of 
development  \\hich  may  serve  for  a  divisor.  In  the 
changes  already  evident  in  lin^^iuistic  development  at 
the  earliest  dawn  of  historic  evidence,  we  have  our 
dividend.  Supposing  the  human  race  to  have  set  out 
from  a  common  center  to  distribute  themselves  over 
the  surface  of  the  earth  with  the  simplest  form  of 
speech,  the  question  is,  How  long  would  it  take  them 
to  attain  that  linguistic  divergence  and  development 
which  we  find  to  exist  already  at  an  indefinite  period 
preceding  the  earliest  historical  records  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates?  How  long  would  it 
take  wandering  tribes  to  make  the  progress  indi- 
cated by  the  language  of  the  original  Aryan-speaking 
people  ? 

In  order  to  get  the  rate  of  progress  we  naturally 
turn  to  the  changes  of  language  which  have  taken 
place  within  the  historical  period  and  more  especially 
m  modern  times.  That  changes  are  continually  go- 
ing on  in  language  is  evident  upon  slight  reflection. 
Even  with  all  the  conservative  influence  of  literature 
such  as  has  been  in  the  possession  of  the  European 
nations  since  their  conversion  to  Christianity,  a  cer- 
tain class  of  changes  has  proceeded  with  considerable 
rapidity.  It  is  with  difficulty  that  the  ordinan^  Eng- 
lish student  of  the  present  time  reads  the  writings  of 


88  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Spenser  and  Chaucer.  Even  the  standard  English 
version  of  the  Bible  contains  so  many  archaisms  that 
a  new  translation  has  been  demanded. 

But  the  most  familiar  example  of  modern  linguistic 
changes  is  to  be  found  in  the  varieties  of  the  Latin 
language  now  spoken  in  different  parts  of  Europe, 
and  in  the  colonies  that  have  carried  these  dialects 
with  them  to  the  New^  World.  The  Latin  of  the 
classical  period  died  of  formalism  and  propriety.  The 
main  currents  of  national  life  flow^ed  outside  of  the 
literary  channels.  The  men  who  spoke  the  homely 
dialects  of  the  provinces,  and  of  the  busy  marts  of 
trade  and  common  life,  conquered  by  sheer  force  of 
numbers ;  so  that  now,  instead  of  one  form  of  speech, 
we  have  the  Latin  and  eight  or  nine  other  tongues 
closely  allied  in  form  and  structure  to  the  language 
of  Rome  in  her  palmy  days,  yet  differing  so  much 
from  one  another  that  each  has  to  be  learned  as  a 
separate  language;  viz.,  Portuguese,  Spanish,  French, 
Provencal,  Italian,  VVallachian,  Rheto-Romanic,  and 
Roumanian. 

The  most  natural  theory  concerning  the  origin  of 
these  languages  is  that  they  are  the  modifications  of 
the  Latin  which  became  prevalent  in  these  various 
localities  during  the  loti^  reign  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire.    While  the  presence  of  the  Roman  legions,  and 


Tin-    Liri'^uistic    .1  m^ittucnt  8<; 

of  the  Roman  colonists  of  various  kinds,  disscniinatt'il 
and  made  popular  the  lan;4ua<j;e  of  the  capital,  the 
numerical  predominance  of  the  native  populations  leil 
to  such  modifications  of  it  as  spoken  in  the  various 
localities  that  when  the  Roman  lei^ions  were  with- 
drawn, and  there  was  no  literary  standard  left,  there 
was  great  freedom  for  development,  which  has  shown 
itself  in  the  so-called  Romance  languages  of  Europe. 
—  each  having  a  literature  of  its  own,  and  each  having 
a  character  naturally  impressed  upon  it  by  the  national 
peculiarities  and  the  national  language  which  it  had 
supplanted.  All  this  seems  to  have  been  the  work 
of  the  first  two  or  three  centuries  after  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  If  we  knew  the  histon^  better,  how- 
ever, we  should  doubtless  find  that  it  had  been  going 
on  in  the  speech  of  the  common  people  during  all  the 
preceding  centuries  of  Roman  occupation. 

But  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  a  quantitative  measure 
from  any  observations  devoted  to  languages  with  a 
living  literature.  There  is,  first,  the  retarding  eliect 
of  the  literature  itself,  which  it  is  impossible  fully  to 
measure;  and,  secondly,  there  is  the  fact  that  all  the 
linguistic  changes  known  to  have  taken  place  within 
historic  times  fall  short  of  affecting  the  essential 
structure  of  the  language  itself.  No  language  has 
ever   been    observed    in    historical    times   to   pass    from 


go  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

one  of  the  great  classes  enumerated  above  into  any 
other.  The  monosyllabic  languages  have  satisfied  the 
people  speaking  them;  the  agglutinative  tongues  have 
offered  the  widest  range  for  variation,  but  the  people 
using  them  have  never  ventured  out  of  the  agglutina- 
tive fold;  while  the  Inflectional  languages  have  con- 
stantly tended  to  variation,  but  always  within  the 
limits  of  their  class. 

Probably,  however,  we  shall  have  to  acknowledge 
that  the  rate  of  progress  in  the  established  order  of- 
things  may  be  very  different  from  that  In  the  Inchoate 
condition  of  the  human  race.  Uniformity  may  not 
be  the  word  which  expresses  the  truth  with  respect 
to  the  development  of  language  any  more  than  It  is 
in  physiology  and  geology.  Parox5^smal  evolution  may 
be  the  law  of  language,  as  doubtless  it  has  been  the 
law  of  the  development  of  species.  Certainly  the  sta- 
tionary physical  condition  of  the  adult  Individual  is 
no  measure  of  the  development  in  childhood  and 
youth,  and  we  may  be  as  far  from  the  truth  In 
endeavoring  to  reach  the  primitive  state  of  man  by 
projecting  the  nearly  parallel  lines  of  linguistic  de- 
velopment open  to  our  study,  as  we  should  be  In  rea- 
j^onlng  In  a  similar  manner  from  the  condition  of  the 
adult  to  tlie  condition  of  the  embryo  before  its  birth 
into  the  outward  world. 


77/r    Linf^uistic    Ar^ununt  9 1 

It  lias  been  iii<2;t*nic)usly  su^L!;cstccl  by  Air.  Horatio 
Hale  tliat  our  safest  analogies  from  whicli  to  reason 
concerning  the  ori;2;in  of  the  v.'irioiis  forms  of  human 
speech,  may  be  drawn  fr(jm  the  linijjuistio  develop- 
ments of  those  children,  who,  from  one  cause  or  an- 
other, have  for  a  time  isolated  themselves  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  have  independently  framed  a 
language  of  their  own  through  which  to  communicate 
with  one  another.  In  several  recorded  cases  this 
isolation  has  taken  place  voluntarily,  not  by  compul- 
sion ;  and  the  study  of  such  instances  affords  a  clue 
to  what  might  take  place,  either  in  the  infancy  of  the 
race,  or  at  any  time  when  a  family  of  small  children 
should  by  accident  have  become  isolated  amid  condi- 
tions where  life  could  be  supported  without  parental 
care. 

Man  has  been  properly  defined  as  "  an  animal  that 
speaks."  Articulate  language  is  a  necessity  of  his  na- 
ture, and  he  makes  use  of  the  organs  for  producing  it 
as  instinctively  as  the  bird  does  of  his  wings.  Proba- 
bly, every  one  is  cognizant  of  families  of  children  who 
have  framed  a  language  of  their  own,  the  full  mean- 
ing of  which  was  known  only  to  themselves,  —  in- 
venting names  of  their  own  for  the  various  utensils 
of  the  house  and  the  various  tools  used  in  the  house- 
hold*.   Such  experiences  will  give  the  greater  force  to 


92  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

several  detailed  reports  which  have  been  made  con- 
cerning the  progress  in  language-making,  where  chil- 
dren have  been  permitted  to  proceed  to  considerable 
lengths.  Of  course  this  is  not  a  field  in  which  we 
can  freel)^  experiment;  for,  principles  of  humanity 
forbid  any  extended  experiments  in  this  direction. 
Valuable  as  is  such  truth,  it  is  not  of  so  much  worth 
that  \^T  could  stand  by  and  permit  experiments  which 
would  sacrifice  the  future  development  of  any  of  our 
fellow  men  by  shutting  them  off  from  the  ordinary 
approaches  to  the  full  storehouses  of  the  world's 
knowledge  and  wisdom  afforded  by  established  forms 
of  speech. 

The  following  instances  seem  to  be  the  most  in- 
structive that  have  yet  been  made  public.  The  first 
is  an  account  published,  in  1878,  by  Miss  E.  H. 
Watson, ^^  of  Boston,  telling  of  the  progress  made  by 
two  children,  some  years  before,  in  the  construction  of 
a  language  of  their  own.  These  children  were  twins, 
born  in  the  suburbs  of  Boston  in  i860.  Their  mother 
was  of  German  descent,  and,  though  able  to  speak 
the  language  of  her  father,  never  did  so  in  her  own 
household.  The  children  looked  so  much  alike  that 
it  was  impossible  at  first  for  any  one  but  their 
parents  to  tell  them  apart.  Being  constantly  to- 
gether they  developed,  as  such  children  frequently  do, 


TJic  L'nii^iiistic  .1  n^/nnrnf 


9^ 


an    intense   and   exclusive   interest   in   each   other,    and 
at  the  usual  aire  when  children  commence  to  talk  they 
hcL^an   to   manufacture   a   lan<2;uage  of  their  own,   and 
could  not  he  persuaded  to  use  any  other.    Their  older 
sister   could    not    induce   them    to    utter   a   syllable   of 
English.    Not  even  the  w^ords  **  papa  "  and  "  mamma  " 
could    be   extorted    from    their   unwilling   lips.      They 
had  a  name  for  their  mother,  but  it  was  one  of  their 
own  devising.     While  playing  and  talking  together  in 
their  own  speech,  they  exhibited  all  the  liveliness  and 
volubility    of    common    children.     They    had    regular 
words   for  various  objects   which   the   family  came  to 
distinguish,    but    which,    unfortunately,    had    for    the 
most  part  been  forgotten  before  Miss  Watson  wrote 
her  account.     Of  these  the  word  for  "  carriage  "  seems 
to  be  the  only  one  that  has  been  rescued.    It  was  nJ-.^i- 
brjfj-a,  which  they  would  cry  out  when  hearing  the  car- 
riag-e  pass  in  the  street,  and  then  run  to  the  window. 
A  more  systematic  series  of  observations  was  made 
by  Dr.  E.  R.   Hun,^i  of  Albany,  N.  Y..  upon  a  lan- 
guage invented  by  two  children  in  that  city.      In  this 
case  the  two  children  were  a  boy  and  a  girl,  the  one 
being    eighteen    months    older    than    the    other.      The 
older  one  of  the  children   began  to  use  words  of  her 
ov.ii   inxcntion  soon  after  she  was  two  years  old,  and 
these  words   uere  adopted   by   the  younger  one  as  he 


94  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

came  to  feel  the  need  of  language,  and  were  used  by 
him  in  preference  to  those  which  his  parents  endeav- 
ored to  teach  him.  The  parents  were  cultivated  peo- 
ple, using  only  the  English  language,  and  the  domes- 
tics employed  spoke  only  English.  But  the  children 
continued  to  talk  with  great  rapidity  and  fluency  to 
each  other  in  an  unknown  tongue.  Some  of  their 
words  evidently  imitated  the  sounds  of  the  objects 
designated,  that  is,  were  onomatopoetic ;  but  others 
showed  no  traces  of  the  working  of  that  principle. 
The  word  mea  which  closely  resembled  the  mewing  of 
the  cat,  was  made  to  represent  both  cat  and  fur.  But 
some  of  their  words  were  evidently  formed  from  the 
mere  love  of  jingle,  which  is  prominent  in  both  chil- 
dren and  poets.  Migno-miirno  signified  indifferently 
"  \\ater,"  ''  wash,"  "  bath."  Go-go  signified  "  sugar," 
"  candy,"  and  other  delicacies.  Waia-ivaiar  signified 
"  black,"  "  darkness,"  or  a  "  negro."  Gurnmigar  was 
a  generalized  concept  of  all  the  substantial  dishes  of 
the  table  and  at  the  same  time  was  applied  to  the 
cook.  Of  miscellaneous  words  gar  meant  "  horse  "  ; 
deer,  "money"  of  all  kinds;  beer,  **  literature," 
"  books,"  or  "  school  "  ;  peer,  "  ball  "  ;  hau,  *'  soldier," 
or  "music";  odo,  "to  send  for,"  "to  go  out,"  and 
"take  away";  pn-ina,  "to  go  to  sleep,"  "pillow,"  or 
"  bed."      Of   compounds   we   have    from    odo    (which 


Till'  LuiiTuislic  Ari^iiincnt  95 

means,  as  \vc  have  said,  "  to  send  for,"  "  to  go  out," 
or  "  to  take  away  ")  ma  odo.  meaniiifj;  "  I  want  to  go 
out";  i^ar  odo,  "send  for  a  horse";  too  odo,  "all 
gone."  Gadn  signified  "  God,"  and  we  are  told  that 
when  it  rained  the  children  would  often  run  to  the 
window  and  call  out,  Gadn  odo  /niirno-migno,  feu  odo, 
meaning,  "  God  take  way  the  rain  and  send  the 
sun";  —  odo  before  the  object  meaning  "to  take 
away  "  while  after  the  object  it  meant  "  to  send  for." 
While  the  word  for  soldier  was  bau  they  applied  it 
also  to  the  bishop  when  they  saw  him  in  his  miter  and 
vestments,  and  while,  also,  «■«;•  odo  meant  "  send  for 
the  horse,"  it  was  also  used  for  a  noun  to  designate 
the  pencil  and  paper  used  in  making  a  written  order 
for  the  horse. 

In  these  illustrations  we  have  brought  to  light  the 
fact  that  language  is  so  much  a  necessity  to  the  social 
nature  of  man,  and  his  organs  of  speech  and  his  in- 
stincts are  such,  that  persons  with  a  strongly  linguis- 
tic bent  can  make  a  language  almost  as  easily,  in  case 
of  need,  as  they  can  learn  one;  so  that  there  is  no 
great  mastery  about  the  origin  of  language,  when 
once  we  have  man.  It  appears  to  be  the  most  nat- 
ural thing  in  the  world  for  him  to  designate  objects 
and  actions  by  some  vocal  sound,  and  any  two  chil- 
dren who  have  a  well-developed  linguistic  faculty  and 


q6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

have  not  been  previously  taught  a  language  would 
soon  begin  to  communicate  with  each  other  by  vocal 
utterances,  and  would  speedily  come  to  an  agreement 
upon  the  names  of  the  things  about  them,  and  upon 
expressions  indicating  the  relations  of  things  to  one 
another.  A  language  with  all  its  essential  elements 
might  thus  be  formed,  in  some  instances,  in  the  same 
time  that  children  now  learn  one  from  their  parents 
and  teachers.  Indeed,  it  is  a  question  if  it  would  not 
be  as  easy  for  some  peculiarly  gifted  children  to  make 
up  their  own  language  as  to  adopt  that  of  their  eld- 
ers, except  for  the  greater  convenience  which  they  find 
in  the  use  of  the  existing  language  in  interchanging 
ideas  with  the  larger  circle  of  their  fellows. 

With  these  facts  in  mind  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
diverse  languages  might  arise  in  a  short  period  of 
time  if  only  we  can  imagine  children  to  be  isolated  at 
an  early  age ;  and  this  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  when 
we  take  into  account  the  various  vicissitudes  of  human 
life,  and  the  facilities  which  certain  regions  afford  for 
the  sustenance  of  life  with  little  forethought  and  ex- 
ertion upon  the  part  of  the  individuals.  It  is  in  such 
favored  portions  of  the  earth's  surface  that  we  are 
naturally  led  to  suppose  the  human  race  had  its  ori- 
gin and  early  development,  where  the  climate  was 
mild  and  equable  and  where  food  was  accessible  dur- 


The  Lint^uistic  Ati^uiiicnt  97 

'\n^  all  portions  of  the  year.  The  ability  to  cope  witii 
the  hardships  of  winter  and  with  prolonged  droughts 
of  the  summer  months,  we  might  suppose  to  have  been 
accjuired  at  a  later  stage  of  human  development.  As 
to  the  ability  of  early  races  to  develop  along  these 
lines,  we  have  no  direct  evidence;  but  Paheolithic 
skulls  show,  as  we  shall  see,  a  remarkable  brain  ca- 
pacity, equaling  in  some  cases  that  of  the  greatest  of 
modern  scholars  and  savants,  and  it  therefore  seems 
likely  that  they  possessed  in  a  high  degree  this  lin- 
guistic faculty. 

As  Air.  Hale  has  observed,  it  is  a  significant  fact 
that  the  regions  where  languages  are  most  numerous 
are  those,  where  conditions  favor  the  isolation  of  fam- 
ilies of  children,  such  as  we  have  supposed.  In  Amer- 
ica it  is  in  Oregon  and  California,  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  where  we  find  the  greatest  number  of  lan- 
guages;—  there  being,  as  already  said,  no  less  than 
thirty  in  that  single  region,  and  each  one  of  the  lan- 
guages is  spoken  by  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
persons.  The  significant  fact  in  this  connection  is 
thnt  here  we  find  the  conditions  most  favorable  for 
the  preservation  of  a  helpless  family.  In  the  lowlands 
of  California  snow  and  ice  are  rarely  formed;  more 
than  half  of  the  days  are  cloudless;  roses  bloom 
throughout  the  year;  "strawberries,  blackberries,  cur- 


qS  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

rants,  raspberries,  and  salmon-berries  are  indigenous 
and  abundant.  Large  fruits  and  edible  nuts "  are 
within  easy  reach.  The  horse-chestnut  also  provides 
abundant  fruit,  much  used  by  the  Indians.  Wild 
cherries  and  plums  abound,  and  there  are  various 
kinds  of  nutritious  roots,  maturing  at  different  sea- 
sons, while  fish  crowd  the  streams,  and  earthworms 
are  ever  within  reach  of  the  starving;  and,  as  already 
intimated,  the  climate  is  such  that  clothing  is  scarcely 
necessary,  and  shelter  is  well-nigh  superfluous.  In 
these  Edenic  conditions  it  is  easy  to  see  how^  it  is  pos- 
sible, in  the  vicissitudes  of  savage  life,  for  a  family  of 
small  children  whose  father  and  mother  have  perished, 
to  grow  up  in  isolation,  and  be  compelled  to  -develop 
a  language  for  themselves;  or  as  Mr.  Hale  suggests, 
if  only  one  of  the  parents  had  perished,  the  remaining 
one  might  find  it  easier  to  adopt  the  linguistic  inven- 
tions of  the  children  than  to  impose  all  of  his  own 
upon  them,  when,  how^ever,  it  would  be  likely  that 
the  structure  of  the  parent's  language  would  remain, 
even  though  new  w-ords  had  been  devised  and  adopted. 
On  this  view  of  the  origin  of  various  isolated  Ameri- 
can languages,  we  can  readily  account  for  the  striking 
resemblances  which  still  characterize  some  that  are  in 
general  far  apart;  as,  for  example,  the  common  word 
for  "  foot  "    (si  or  sit)    found  in  the  Algonquin,   Iro- 


The  T/uKj^n'istic  .hi^iinunt 


n<) 


quois  ami  Dakota,  —  a  souiul,  sa\s  Mr.  llalc,  so  sim- 
ple that  even  a  youiii:  chihl  who  haJ  once  lu'aiil  it 
miiiht  he  expected  to  retain  it  in  ilesiii;natiii<^  the  oh- 
ject  to  which  it  was  originally  applied. 

The  same  tendency  to  extreme  variations  in  lan- 
guage observable  in  California  is  also  said  to  exist  in 
tropical  Brazil,  where  also  the  conditions  are  most 
favorable  for  the  preservation  of  families  of  children 
that  might  happen  to  become  isolated.  Baron  von 
Tschudi  estimates  that  there  are  hundreds  of  such 
languages  in  South  America.^ - 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  multiplicity  of  lan- 
guages in  California  and  l^razil  is  the  uniformity  of 
language  in  Australia,  where  the  conditions  are  such 
as  to  insure  the  destruction  of  any  family  of  3'oung 
children  that  shoidd  become  separated  from  their  nat- 
ural protectors.  Here,  though  the  climate  is  warm, 
the  drought  of  summer  interposes  as  serious  an  obsta- 
cle to  the  spontaneous  existence  of  the  human  race  as 
the  cold  of  winter  does  in  the  higher  latitudes. 

As  every  consideration  would  point  to  a  country 
blest  with  a  mild  climate  and  with  abundant  sponta- 
neous fruits  of  the  field,  as  the  natural  habitation  for 
primitive  man,  we  can  readily  see  that  the  diversifica- 
tion of  languages  may  have  been  the  work  of  a  com- 
paratively  short   time.      In   those   conditions,    isolation 


lOO  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  families  was  the  most  likely  to  occur.  With  the 
present  preoccupation  of  the  whole  earth  and  the  gen- 
eral spread  of  civilizing  agencies,  however,  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  isolation  to  take  place.  As  with  the 
criminal  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
there  is  now  no  opportunity  for  flight.  Wherever 
the  culprit  w^ent  he  was  still  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
for  Rome  w^as  the  world ;  so  now  wherever  a  family 
of  children  should  become  isolated,  the  isolation  could 
remain  but  the  briefest  period  before  the  all-pervading 
influences  of  the  swarming  nations  w^ould  close  in 
around  them  and  absorb  them  in  the  great  mass. 

It  is  thus  easily  evident  that  present  rates  of  linguis- 
tic development  are  no  measure  at  all  of  the  rates 
that  may  have  prevailed  in  primitive  times.  There  is 
an  old  age  to  the  race  as  well  as  to  the  individual. 
After  certain  stages  of  progress,  the  conservative  in- 
fluences of  society  into  w^hich  wt  are  born  and  in 
which  we  are  reared,  become  so  predominant,  that 
changes  in  language  must  be  very  slow,  and  must  pro- 
ceed in  well-defined  lines.  We  cannot,  therefore,  in 
this  case  draw  long  conclusions  backw\ard  from  the 
point  at  which  history  first  rises  from  the  misty  depths 
of  the  past.  The  evidence  of  an  extremely  great  an- 
tiquity of  the  human  race  drawn  from  the  diversity 
of  language  at  the  dawn  of  historv  is  far  from  con- 


The  l.ini^itistic  Ari^unicnt 


lOI 


elusive.  It  docs  not,  indeed,  forbid  the  supposition  of 
.ereat  antiquity,  hut  it  does  not  carry  the  positive 
weight  of  evidence  which  has  often  been  cLaimed  for 
It.  It  is  pecuh'arly  one  of  those  reahns  of  inquiry 
where  the  present  is  not  a  measure  of  the  past.^^ 


I02  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


CHAPTER    IV 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  RACES  OF  EUROPE 

Historical  evidence  gives  little  help  in  untangling 
the  problems  presented  by  the  conglomerated  popula- 
tions of  Europe.  While,  for  thousands  of  years  the 
light  of  civilization  was  brightly  burning  in  North- 
eastern Africa  and  in  Western  Asia,  a  dense  night  of 
barbarism  rested  over  all  the  principal  centers  of 
modern  culture.  Rom.e's  earliest  legends  reach  back 
only  a  few  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era. 
Adventurous  Phoenician  navigators  had,  at  a  some- 
what earlier  period,  ventured  bej^ond  the  pillars  of 
Hercules,  and  extended  their  traffic  to  the  shores  of 
Britain.  But  they  left  no  permanent  influence  upon 
the  tribes  with  which  they  interchanged  commodities. 
There  are  also  a  few  other  signs  of  extended  lines  of 
traffic  between  the  earlier  centers  of  civilization  and 
the  plains  of  Northern  Europe  during  their  long  se- 
clusion in  the  night  of  primeval  barbarism.  I  was 
much  impressed  a  few"  years  ago,  while  crossing  the 
Alps,  to  encounter  a  party  of  excavators  under  direc- 
tion of  .^he  Italian  government,  who  had  just  uncov- 
ered  near    the   summit   of   the    St.    Bernard    Pass   the 


Or'ii^rj,,  of  flic  Races  of  Europe  1 03 

toundations  of  an  ancicMU  temple  which  had  been  laid 
loiii^  before  the  walls  of  Rome  were  built.  Here  vo- 
tive offerint^s  were  found  whose  date  could  fairly  be 
assigned  to  a  period  as  early  as  800  B.C.,  showing 
that,  from  very  early  times,  the  lines  of  traffic  across 
the  Alps  had  been  the  same  as  they  now  are. 

It  is  evident  that  a  civilization  of  a  high  order  de- 
veloped in  Northern  Italy  about  one  thousand  years 
before  Christ,  and  became  the  foundation  of  the  later 
civilization  of  Rome.  Hie  relics  of  Etruscan  art 
which  have  come  down  to  us  reveal  a  skill  that  was 
scarcely  excelled  in  any  later 'time  in  Italy.  But  even 
this  civilization  was  not  indigenous.  It  had  come 
from  the  East,  either  from  the  Mediterranean  shore 
where  the  first  rudiments  of  Grecian  culture  flour- 
ished,  or  from  the  valley  of  the  Danube  which  had 
received  cultured  immigrants  from  the  more  distant 
parts  of  the  world. 

Archrpologists  are  now  inclined  to  trace  important 
elements  of  the  Etruscan  civilization  to  one  whose 
center  was  at  Hallstatt,  a  little  Alpine  village  in 
upper  Austria  near  the  border  of  Salzburg,  where 
discoveries  have  been  made  marking  an  epoch  in 
archaeological  research.  Here,  a  long  distance  from 
any  present  great  center  of  population,  a  prehistoric 
cemetery  was  found  where  were  excavated  more  than 


I04  Orii^in  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

three  thousand  graves  containing  a  great  variety  of 
weapons,  implements,  and  ornaments,  none  of  which 
were  Greek  or  Roman.  Both  bronze  and  iron  appear 
at  Hallstatt,  indicating  the  advent  of  influences  from 
an  advanced  stage  of  PZastern  civilization.  The  date 
is  certainly  as  early  as  that  of  the  "IVojan  era  cele- 
brated by  Homeric  song,  and  its  influence  can  be 
traced  over  a  large  part  of  Central  and  Southern  Eu- 
rope, being  specially  marked  in  that  of  the  Etruscan 
era  and  through  them  in  the  later  Roman.  Great 
artistic  skill  is  shown  at  Hallstatt  in  ornamental  work 
in  bronze.  Large  numbers  of  situUr,  or  metallic  pails, 
have  been  found,  ornamented  with  figures  worked  in 
repousse.  The  figures  both  of  men  and  animals  in 
these  designs  are  wrought  with  a  skill  worthy  of  the 
classical  age  of  Greek  art.^ 

But  preceding  the  period  when  bronze  and  iron 
were  in  use  in  Europe,  there  stretches  out  into  the 
dim  recesses  of  the  past  an  age  when  stone  was  the 
only  material  from  which  implements,  weapons,  and 
ornaments  were  made.  This  period  is  subdivided  into 
the  palaeolithic  (ancient  stone)  and  the  neolithic 
(newer  stone)  eras  —  the  pal.Tolithic,  as  the  word 
indicates  being  the  older.  Moreover  the  pahrolithic 
implements  arc  all  worked  into  shape  by  chipping,  and 
so   are   often    referred    to    as    rough   stone   implements. 


Or'a^'ut   of  the   Races  of  Kit  rope  lo^ 

whik'  tlu"  hitcr  neolithic  iiiiplciiicnts  arc  tashioncd  liy 
nihhinLi;  and  so  arc  appropriately  tailed  smooth  stotu- 
iniplcnuMits.  In  Kiirope  Lieoloizical  evidence  shows 
that  the  pahuolithic  a<2;e  long  antedates  that  of  the 
neolithic.  We  will,  therefore,  first  detail  the  essen- 
tial  tacts  conccrnini:  neolithic  man   in   luirope. 

Prominent  amoniz  the  relics  of  neolithic  man  in 
Europe  are  the  kitchen  midtlcns,  or  slicll  heaps,  of 
Denmark  and  Sweden  — •  places  where  successive  gen- 
erations of  primitive  men  have  thrown  the  refuse  of 
their  favorite  camping  places.  In  these  refuse  heaps 
are  to  be  found  the  shells  and  bones  of  the  animals 
which  served  for  their  food,  intermingled  with  va- 
rious implem.ents  that  had  been  either  broken  or  lost. 
These  implements  consist  of  flint  hatchets  and  other 
utensils  m.adc  of  stone,  horn,  wood,  and  bone,  to- 
gether with  coarse  pottery,  while  charcoal  and  cinders 
abound.  The  stone  implements  have  usually  been 
polished  and  sharpened  by  rubbing;  this  justifying 
their  assignment  to  the  "  smooth  stone  age." 

The  mounds  formed  by  these  kitchen  refuse  heaps 
arc  sometimes  as  much  as  ten  feet  high,  and  stretch 
along  the  shore  for  a  thousand  feet,  and  extend  back 
one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  feet.  Usually 
they  are  within  a  few  feet  of  the  level  of  the  sea, 
and  in  all  cases  were  originally  upon  the  shore  of  the 


I06  Oris^in  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

sea  or  upon  some  inlet.  In  some  instances,  however, 
through  the  silting  up  of  the  inlet,  the  refuse  heaps 
are  now  several  miles  from  the  shore. 

But  extensive  as  are  some  of  these  refuse  shell 
heaps,  we  are  not  compelled  to  assign  to  them  extreme 
antiquity.  The  animal  remains  here  associated  with 
the  neolithic  implements  are  all  of  existing  species, 
showing  that  there  has  not  been  any  great  change  in 
the  physical  conditions  since  their  deposition.  Tlie 
shell-fish  are  sometimes  larger  than  those  now^  exist- 
ing in  the  same  region,  which  is  owing  probably  to 
the  greater  saltness  of  the  Baltic  at  that  time^  due 
perhaps  to  a  freer  influx  of  ocean  water,  which  has 
subsequently  been  prevented  by  the  silting  up  of  some 
of  the  passages  between  the  many  islands  of  Den- 
mark. 

The  evidence  from  a  succession  of  forests  is  more 
suggestive  of  great  age,  and  yet  by  no  means  conclu- 
sive. As  far  back  as  history  or  tradition  can  carry  us, 
Denmark  has  been  covered  with  beech  forests,  and 
they  continue  to  flourish  there  at  the  present  time 
with  great  luxuriance.  Eighteen  centuries  have 
passed  without  sensibly  modifying  the  character  of 
the  forests.  How  long  before  this  the  beech  w^as 
enabled  to  displace  the  oak,  we  have  no  means  of 
telling.      Yet    during   the   continuance   of   the   bronze 


Orii^iu  of  the  Races  of  Euro/^e  107 

age,  oak  was  tlic  prevailing  forest;  while  in  the  stone 
age,  which  is  that  of  the  kitchen  middens,  the  pine 
forests  had  not  heen  displaced  hy  deciduous  trees. 
The  age  of.  stone  was  the  age  of  the  pine  and  fir. 
Something  of  a  clue  is  given  to  the  date  of  these 
older  forests  hy  the  growth  of  peat,  which  is  found 
to  overlie  both  prostrate  trunks  of  the  pine  and  scat- 
tered implements  of  the  stone  age.  Steenstrup,  one 
of  the  most  careful  observers,  estimates  that  we  are 
carried  back  by  these  calculations  at  least  tw^o  thou- 
sand years  before  the  Christian  era. 

In  the  lake  dwellings  of  Switzerland  we  meet  with 
another  class  of  relics  of  the  smooth  stone,  or  neo- 
lithic, age.-  These  are  dwellings  built  upon  piles 
extending  out  into  the  shallow^  portions  of  the  vari- 
ous lakes,  where  it  was  easy  to  obtain  protection  both 
from  the  incursions  of  v.-ild  beasts  and  the  sudden  at- 
tack of  human  enemies.  Such  dwellings  in  actual  occu- 
pation had  come  to  the  notice  of  Herodotus  as  late  as 
the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  in  some  of  the  moun- 
tain lakes  of  what  is  now  modern  Roumelia.  From 
recent  explorations  much  has  been  learned  about  the 
conditions  of  life  among  the  lake  dwellers.  Some- 
times these  settlements  were  large  enough  to  contain 
a  population  of  a  thousand,  and  a  single  village  is 
believed  to  have  been  found  which  had  three  hundred 


lo8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

houses  fn  it.  Forty  thousand  piles  are  estimated  to 
have  been  necessary  for  the  construction  of  some  of 
these  villages.  The  villages  existed  in  great  num- 
bers throughout  the  lake  region  of  Switzerland,  and 
belonged  to  different  periods,  —  some  to  the  bronze 
and  some  to  the  stone  age.  Naturally  the  larger  and 
best  preserved  viTre  those  belonging  to  the  bronze 
period.  In  one  of  those  of  stone  age,  near  Berne,  the 
flint  employed  must  have  come  from  outside  the 
bounds  of  Switzerland,  but  the  chippings  w^ere  so 
numerous  as  to  suggest  that  the  place  was  fixed  upon 
as  a  manufactory.  Implements  of  jade  also  were 
found,  —  a  material  which  probably  had  to  be  brought 
from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  or  from  Central  Asia. 
Thus  in  the  early  part  of  the  neolithic  age  an  exten- 
sive commerce  among  the  tribes  of  Europe  is  indi- 
cated ;  while  in  the  bronze  age  of  the  lake  dwellers 
the  indications  of  an  extensive  commerce  are  still  more 
numerous.  In  the  lake  dwellings  of  the  stone  age, 
grains  of  carbonized  wheat  and  barley,  and  round 
cakes  of  bread,  have  been  found,  besides  bones  of  the 
dog,  tlie  ox,  the  sheep,  and  the  goat. 

Like  the  animal  remains  of  the  Danish  refuse  heaps, 
those  of  the  Swiss  lake  dwelh'ngs  are  all  of  species 
that  have  survived  to  the  historical  era.  A  change  In  the 
predominant  animals  is  noticeable,  however,  in  passing 


Orii^hi  of  tJic  Races  of  Europe  109 

from  the  lake  d\vcllin<2;s  of  the  stone  ai2;e  to  those  of  tlic 
hronze  niic.  In  the  earh^  a^c  the  remains  of  the  sta^ 
and  roe  are  more  abundant  than  those  of  domestic  cat- 
tle and  sheep,  and  those  of  the  wild  boar  more  frequent 
than  those  of  the  tame  pig,  and  those  of  the  goat  than 
those  of  the  sheep ;  while  in  the  later  dwellings  the 
proportions  were  reversed.  The  bones  of  the  fox  are 
vev}'  common  in  the  lake  dwellings  of  the  stone  age, 
but  give  place  in  the  bronze  age  to  those  of  the  hunt- 
ing dog.  But  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  and  the  dog 
existed  during  the  earliest  period  of  the  lake  dwell- 
ers. The  domestication  of  animals  proceeded  through- 
out the  period  with  considerable  regularity,  and  they 
gradually  took  the  place  of  wild  animals  for  food. 
The  existence  of  domestic  animals  in  the  earliest  sites 
of  lake  dwellers  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
first  occupation  of  this  kind  of  dwellings  w^as  later 
than  the  period  represented  by  the  refuse  heaps  of 
Denmark,  where  the  remains  of  domestic  animals 
have  not  been  found  with  the  exception  of  the  dog, 
and  where  there  are  no  remains  of  cultivated  cereals. 
Hut  all  archaeologists  now  admit  that  the  development 
of  the  races  of  Northern  Europe  lagged  far  behind 
that  in  Central  and  Southern  Europe. 

The  most   elaborate   attempt   to   determine   the   age 
of   any  of   the   lake   dwellings   was   made   by    Morlot 


no  Oj'ifr'ui  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

through  calculations  drawn  from  the  details  of  the 
Tiniere,  which  flows  into  Lake  Geneva  near  its  up- 
per end.  Morlot's  calculations  would  make  the  re- 
mains of  the  stone  age  from  five  to  seven  thousand 
years  old.  But  these  calcidations  were  based  upon 
assumptions  respecting  both  the  amount  and  rate  of 
deposit  which  are  uncertain.  Dr.  Andrews,  after  go- 
ing carefully  over  the  ground,  concluded  that  the 
earliest  human  remains  found  in  the  delta  of  the 
Tiniere  were  probably  not  more  than  three  thousand 
years  old." 

.Thus  it  appears  that  no  geological  facts  earn,-  neo- 
lithic man  farther  back  in  P^urope  than  to  the  period 
in  which  historical  evidence  reveals  a  high  state  of 
civilization  in  the  valleys  of  the  Nile  and  Euphrates. 
Some  further  light,  however,  may  be  shed  upon  both 
the  date  of  neolithic  man's  entrance  into  Europe  and 
the  stage  of  his  culture,  by  attending  to  the  more 
general  ethnological  problems  which  recent  investiga- 
tions are  attempting  to  solve. 

At  first  sight  it  would  seem  impossible  to  untangle 
the  ethnological  problem  that  is  presented  by  the 
coexistence  of  so  many  varieties  of  the  human  race 
as  exist  in  Europe  and  adjoining  regions.  In  color 
the  blond  type  prevails  in  the  north  and  the  brunct 
in  the  south.     I^ight  hair  and  blue  eyes  prevail  almost 


Orii^rj/i  of  the  Rdci's  of  Europe  I  I  I 

universally  in  Scandinavia  and  Northern  Germany, 
and  amunij;  the  Slavs  of  Russia.  On  the  other  hand 
black  hair  and  eyes  and  dark  skin  prevail  increasino;ly 
as  we  ^o  south  in  Europe  and  into  Northern  Africa, 
with  intermediate  types  over  Central  Europe.  But  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  while  the  color  of  the  hair  varies 
through  all  extremes  from  blond  to  brunet,  the  form 
and  texture  of  the  hair  of  all  the  European  races  is 
the  same.  There  are  in  Europe  no  races  with  the  crisp 
and  curly  hair  of  the  African  Negro,  nor  any  with 
the  stiff,  wiry,  straight  hair  of  the  Asiatic  and  the 
American  aborigines.  It  is  worthy  also  of  note  that 
this  latter  peculiarity  in  the  structure  of  the  hair  pre- 
vails in  Hindustan  where  the  Sanskrit  branch  of  the 
Ar>'an  languages  had  spread. 

The  curly  hair  of  the  Negro  has  a  "  flattened  rib- 
bon-like form  in  cross  section,  as  examined  micro- 
scopically; while  cut  squarely  across,  the  straight  hair 
more  often  inclines  to  a  fairly  rounded  or  cylindrical 
shape."  *  On  the  basis  of  texture  of  the  hair,  the  Eu- 
ropean races  would  be  classed  as  intermediate  between 
the  African  and  the  Asiatic  races.  Whatever  be  the 
color  of  the  hair  of  a  European  race,  it  is  fine  in 
texture  and  inclines  to  be  wavy,  rather  than  curly  or 

sua. 

These  peculiarities  in  the  color  of  the  skin  and   in 


112  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  structure  of  the  hair  of  the  European  races  would 
seem  to  indicate  cither  that  they  are  crosses  of  the 
other  two  varieties,  or  that  color  and  peculiarities  of 
hair  structure  are  more  variable  elements  than  some 
otliers  in  the  determination  of  race. 

But  of  the  more  permanent  racial  characteristics 
the  form  of  the  skull  seems  to  be  the  most  important. 
On  this  basis  races  are  divided  into  broad-headed  and 
long-headed  varieties,  or  in  technical  terms  brachyce- 
phalic  and  dolichocephalic.  In  the  brachycephalic,  or 
broad-headed,  varieties  the  breadth  of  the  skull  above 
the  ears  is  more  than  eighty  per  cent  of  its  length 
from  forehead  to  back.  When  the  breadth  falls  below 
seventy  per  cent  of  the  length  it  is  called  dolichoce- 
phalic, or  long-headed.  In  Europe  there  is  a  curious 
intermingling  of  long-headed  and  broad-headed  races. 
Scandinavia,  Northern  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Ice- 
land, Spain,  and  Southern  Italy  are  occupied  by  long- 
headed races,  as  are  Africa,  Arabia,  Hindustan,  and 
Australia.  But  broad-headed  races  are  thrust  in  be- 
tween them,  occupying  the  Alpine  regions  and  the 
regions  bordering  the  Adriatic  Sea  on  the  east  and 
eastward  through  Russia,  and  Central  and  Northern 
Asia. 

An  important  fact  bearing  on  our  subject  is  that 
the   remains   so   far   discovered   of  prehistoric  man   in 


()ri<rj/i  of  the  Racis  of  Europe  113 

Europe  show  that  he  was  of  a  remarkahly  long- 
headed variety.  This  appears  from  the  measurement 
of  all  available  skulls  which  have  come  down  to  us 
from  the  stone  age.  It  seems,  therefore,  to  be  well 
established  that  Europe  was  originally  occupied  by  a 
long-headed  race  resembling  in  that  respect  both  the 
present  inhabitants  of  the  Mediterranean  area  and 
those  of  Great  Britain  and  Scandinavia. 

But,  as  already  said.  Central  Europe  is  now  prin- 
cipally occupied  by  broad-headed  races,  —  this  being 
specially  true  of  the  Alpine  region.  "  In  the  high 
Alps  of  northwestern  Italy  are  communes  with  an 
average  index  of  89,  an  extreme  of  roundheadedness 
not  equalled  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  save  in  the 
Balkan  Peninsula  and  in  Asia  Minor.  This  type  of 
head  prevails  all  through  the  Alps,  quite  irrespective 
of  political    frontiers."  ^ 

Formerly  it  was  supposed  that  the  original  Eu- 
ropean race  was  of  the  broad-headed  variety  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  Asiatic  Continent.  But  more  care- 
ful analysis  of  the  facts  leads  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  broad-headed  races  were  invaders  who  partially, 
and  only  partially,  crowded  out  the  original  long- 
headed race  which  had  preoccupied  the  whole  area. 
Coming  in,  apparently,  with  a  higher  civilization  the 
broad-headed    people    penetrated    to    all    the    more    at- 


114  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

tractive  portions  of  the  country  and  dispossessed  the 
long-headed  stone  age  people  of  the  best  of  their 
lands.  But  time  wrought  its  accustomed  revenges. 
Primitive  man  of  Europe  in  due  time  learned  the  arts 
of  his  more  civilized  conquerors,  and  possessed  him- 
self of  his  heritage,  and  in  turn  drove  his  conquerors 
to  the  wall,  crowding  them  to  the  more  inaccessible 
regions  of  the  m.ountainous  districts  where  they  have 
maintained  themselves  ever  since  in  comparative  purity. 
That  the  prehistoric  culture  of  Europe  was  not  indig- 
enous, hut  was  derived  from  the  East,  is  ably  argued 
by  Professor  Sophus  Miiller  ^  of  Copenhagen,  who 
shows  that  the  stone  axes,  the  pottery  with  its  peculiar 
ornamentation,  the  species  of  cereals,  the  dwellings, 
the  graves,  and  the  habits  of  agriculture  of  prehistoric 
Europe  came  into  the  region  from  the  East  and  the 
South  where  we  find  the  earliest  seats  of  ancient  civ- 
ilization. An  interesting  confirmation  of  this  theory 
of  Mr.  Ripley^  (to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  many 
of  the  facts  in  this  chapter)  is  found  in  the  present 
existence  of  a  long-headed  race  in  Southwestern  France 
in  the  vicinity  of  Perigueux  and  Limoges. 

The  continued  existence  of  this  long-headed  race 
in  the  midst  of  broad-headed  races  receives  special 
significance  from  the  fact  that  it  is  just  here  that  we 
find    positive    evidence    that    the    prehistoric    man    of 


Ori'^in  of  flic  Races  of  pAiropc  115 

France  vvms  of  an  extremely  lon^-headed  variety.  For 
ft  is  here  that  the  numerous  skeletons  of  the  so-called 
Cro-.Magnon  race,  of  neolithic  age,  have  been  found. 
In  1858  workmen  in  the  valley  of  the  Vezere  un- 
earthed six  complete  skeletons,  three  of  men,  two  of 
women,  and  one  of  a  child.  This  w\as  near  the  little 
village  of  Les  Eyzies,  and  the  excavation  w^as  that  of 
the  celebrated  Cro-Magnon  Cave,  from  which  the 
name  of  the  race  has  been  derived.  Later,  similar 
discoveries  were  made  near  Saint-Gaudens  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Garonne,  in  the  cave  of  Aurignac;  at 
Laugerie  Basse  In  the  Vezere  Valley  and  in  the  cave 
of  Baumes-Chaudes  in  Lozere.  Altogether,  according 
to  Ripley,  nearly  one  hundred  skeletons  were  found 
in  the  caves  of  this  vicinity,  w^hile  others  of  similar 
character  were  found  in  several  localities  more  or  less 
distant.    • 

''  The  prehistoric  antiquity  of  the  Cro-Magnon 
type  in  this  region  is  attested  in  two  distinct  ways. 
In  the  first  place,  the  original  people  possessed  no 
knowledge  of  the  metals;  they  were  in  the  same  stage 
of  culture  as,  perhaps  even  lower  than,  the  American 
aborigines  at  the  coming  of  Columbus.  Their  Im- 
plements were  fashioned  of  stone  or  bone,  although 
often  cunningly  chipped  and  even  polished.  They 
were  Ignorant  of  the  arts,  either  of  agriculture  or  the 


Il6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

domestication  of  animals,  in  both  of  which  they  were 
far  below  the  culture  of  the  native  tribes  of  Africa  at 
the  present  day.  Additional  proof  of  their  antiquity 
was  offered  by  the  animal  remains  found  intermingled 
with  the  human  bones.  The  climate  must  have  been 
very  different  from  that  of  the  present;  for  many  of 
the  fauna  then  living  in  the  region,  such  as  the  rein- 
deer, are  now  confined  to  the  cold  regions  of  north- 
ern Europe.  To  be  sure,  the  great  mammals,  such  as 
the  mammoth,  m.astodon,  the  cave  bear,  and  hyena, 
had  already  become  extinct.  They  were  contempora- 
neous with  the  still  more  ancient  and  uncultured 
type  of  man,  whose  remains  occur  in  a  lower  geolog- 
ical stratum.  This  Cro-Magnon  race  is  not  of  glacial 
antiquity,  5^et  the  distribution  of  mammals  was  mark- 
edly different  from  that  of  to-day.  Thus  of  nineteen 
species  found  in  the  Cro-Magnon  cave,  ten  fto  longer 
existed  in  southern  Europe.  They  had  migrated  with 
the  change  of  climate  towards  the  north.  The  men 
alone  seem  to  have  remained  in  or  near  their  early 
settlements,  through  all  the  changes  of  time  and  the 
vicissitudes  of  history.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  striking 
instance  known  of  a  persistency  of  population  un- 
changed through  thousands  of  years."  ^ 

It  should  be  added  that  the  Engis  skull  of  Belgium, 
SO   fully   described   by   Huxley,   was   of   this   type,    as 


Origin  of  the  Races  of  Europe  117 

have  been  several  others  from  caves  in  widely  separ- 
ated regions  in  Central  and  Western  Europe  and  bor- 
dering regions.  But  from  nearly  all  other  regions  it 
had  apparently  disappeared. 

Closely  adjoining  the  region  occupied  by  the  Cro- 
Magnon  race  is  that  of  the  Basques,  who  by  their 
language  would  seem  to  be  related  to  the  oldest  races 
of  the  world.  The  Basques  occupy  a  small  area  in 
Southwestern  France  and  Northwestern  Spain,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Pyrenees,  yet  they  speak  a  language 
entirely  different  from  the  Aryan  languages  every- 
where surrounding  them  now  in  Europe.  To  find 
their  linguistic  affinities  we  have  to  go  to  the  Finns 
of  Northern  Europe  or  to  the  Hungarians  who  are 
known  to  be  immigrants  from  Asia.  The  Basque 
language  is  agglutinative  like  that  of  the  Tartars  of 
Asia  and  the  Indians  of  America.  Their  words  ex- 
press concrete  conceptions  rather  than  abstract  ideas. 
There  is  no  regular  inflection,  but  rather  an  agglu- 
tination of  concepts  in  one  word,  instances  of  which 
are  given  in  a  preceding  chapter.  In  language,  there- 
fore, the  Basques  would  seem  to  belong  to  the  most- 
primitive  stock  of  the  human  race. 

But  when  considered  from  the  point  of  view  of 
skull  measurements  the  problem  is  more  perplexing; 
for    the    Basques    are    partly    long-headed    and    partly 


Il8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

broad-headed.  Those  living  south  of  the  Pyrenees  in 
Spain  are  long-headed;  \vhile  those  living  north  of 
the  rriountains  in  France  are  mostly  broad-headed. 
Apparently  the  linguistic  and  the  anatomical  evi- 
dence contradict  each  other.  Careful  attention  to  all 
the  facts,  how^ever,  bring,  them  into  harmony.  The 
Basques  of  Spain  are  probably  the  original  unvaried 
stock,  and  those  on  the  north  of  the  mountains  a 
mixed  stock,  vvhich  has  been  produced  by  contact  with 
the  broad-headed  Alpine  race  that  penetrated  to  that 
part  of  the  mountainous  region.  But  though  inter- 
marrying w^ith  the  broad-headed  race  the  Basques  have 
preserved  their  language,  and  at  the  same  time  greatly 
modified  the  physical  features  of  their  mixed  descend- 
ants. For  the  French  Basques  do  not  have  the  round 
face  of  the  Tartar,  but  the  pointed  chin  and  narrow 
face  of  the  Spanish  Basque. 

It  seems  therefore  probable  that  in  this  curious 
relic  of  people  speaking  an  agglutinative  language  in 
these  isolated  parts  of  France  and  Spain,  and  living 
close  to  the  former  home  of  the  Cro-Magnon  race, 
we  have  additional  evidence  that  a  long-headed  people 
originally  occupied  Europe,  and  that  the  Aryan-speak- 
ing peoples  are  Asiatic  invaders,  w^ho  brought  with 
them  the  higher  civilization  which  they  had  developed 
in  Central  Asia.     But,  having  conquered  the  country, 


Oric^in  of  tJic  Races  of  Europe  119 

they  eventually  yielded  to  the  superior  force  of  the 
native  population,  when  it  had  become  possessed  of 
their  arts  of  war  and  domestic  culture.  The  Basques 
are  like  the  silent  letters  in  archaic  words.  Their 
anomalous  character  gives  irresistible  force  to  their 
testimony. 

To  the  theory  that  the  original  inhabitants  of  Eu- 
rope were  a  long-headed,  dark-skinned  race,  affiliated 
with  the  Negroes,  additional  likelihood  is  given  by 
careful  study  of  the  existing  races  in  Russia  and  Scan- 
dinavia. Recent  investigations  show  that  the  Slays 
are  a  broad-headed  race  —  the  cephalic  Index  rising 
progressively  as  w^e  go  southwest  from  Moscow^  to  the 
Adriatic  Sea,  where  the  extreme  of  broad-headedness 
Is  reached  in  Bosnia.  But  the  Baltic  Sea  Is  bordered 
by  long-headed  races  upon  both  sides,  —  the  Swedes 
and  Norwegians  being  the  best  types  of  a  robust,  fair- 
haired,  long-headed  race.  Measurements  of  the  skele- 
tons found  in  the  barrows  and  tumuli  which  are 
frequent  In  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Russia,  show  that 
the  prehistoric  people  who  erected  them  belonged  also 
to  a  long-headed  race. 

Another  Interesting  confirmation  of  the  possibility 
of  determining  past  movements  of  population  from  its 
present  distribution  Is  to  be  found  In  Great  Britain 
in  the  distribution  of  dark-haired  communities  speak- 


I20  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ing  the  Celtic  language.  These  are  to  be  found  in 
Western  and  Southern  Wales,  where  there  is  a  large 
proportion  of  brunets  among  the  people  and  the  Kym- 
ric  Celtic  is  generally  spoken.  This  is  also  true  in 
Inverness  and  Argyle,  Scotland,  and  all  over  the  west 
and  south  of  Ireland,  where  there  is  the  same  pro- 
portion of  brunets  and  the  Gaelic  Celtic  is  spoken. 
Now  though  nearly  all  the  races  in  Great  Britain  be- 
long to  the  long-headed  variety,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  a  dark-haired,  Celtic-speaking  people  were  the 
original  occupants  of  the  Islands.  Their  present  iso- 
lation on  the  western  sides  of  the  Islands  show  that 
they  were  crowded  out  by  invaders  from  the  east. 
Scandinavian  and  German  varieties  of  the  long-headed 
race  took  possession  as  wo.  know  of  the  more  accessible 
portions  of  the  country,  and  left  these  peculiarly  iso- 
lated groups  of  Celts  in  the  extremities  and  more 
inaccessible  portions  of  the  land. 

According  to  Ripley,  "  The  anthropological  history 
of  northeastern  Europe  is  now  clear.  Leaving  aside 
the  question  of  the  original  centre  of  dispersion  of 
the  Slavic  languages,  generally  placed  somewhere 
along  the  upper  Dnieper,  it  would  seem  that  the 
Slavs  as  a  physical  type  penetrated  Russia  from  the 
southwest,  where  they  were  physically  an  offshoot 
from  the  great  Alpine  race  of  central  Europe.    In  so 


Oris;iri  of  tJic  Rdccs  of  Europe  12 1 

doinu;  the}'  forced  a  way  in  over  a  people  primitive  in 
culture,  laiiL^ua^e,  and  physical  type.  This  aboriginal 
substratum  is  represented  to-day  by  the  Finns,  now 
scarcely  to  be  found  in  purity,  pushed  aside  into  the 
nooks  and  corners  by  an  intrusive  people,  possessed 
of  a  higher  culture  acquired  in  central  Europe.  Yet 
the  Finn  has  not  become  extinct.  His  blood  still 
flows  in  Russian  veins,  most  notably  in  the  Great 
and  White  Russian  tribes.  The  former,  in  colonizing 
the  great  plain,  has  also  been  obliged  to  contend  with 
the  Asiatic  barbarians  pressing  in  from  the  east.  Yet 
the  impress  of  the  ^Mongol-Tartar  upon  the  physical 
type  of  the  Great  Russian,  which  constitutes  the  ma- 
jor part  of  the  nation,  has  been  relatively  slight;  for 
instead  of  amalgamation  or  absorption  as  with  the 
Finn,  elimination,  or  what  Leroy-Beaulieu  calls  '  se- 
cretion,' has  taken  place  in  case  of  the  iMongol  hordes. 
They  still  remain  intact  in  the  steppes  about  the  Cas- 
pian ;  the  Tartars  are  banished  to  the  eastern  govern- 
ments as  well,  save  for  those  in  the  Crimea.  The 
Asiatic  influence  has  been  perhaps  more  powerful  in 
determining  the  Great  Russian  character  than  the 
physical  type.  A  struggle  for  mastery  of  eastern 
Europe  with  the  barbarians  has  made  the  Great  Rus- 
sian more  aggressive;  vigour  has  to  some  degree  de- 
veloped at  the  expense  of  refinement.     The  result  has 


122  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

been  to  generate  a  type  well  fitted  to  perform  the 
arduous  task  of  protecting  the  marches  of  Europe 
against  barbarian  onslaught,  and  at  the  same  time 
capable  of  forcefully  extending  European  culture  over 
the  aborigines  of  Asia."  ^ 

The  m.ental  capacity  of  neolithic  man  has  been  too 
much  underestimated.  Until  recently  it  was  sup- 
posed that  his  development  was  very  meager.  But 
recent  discoveries  have  show^n  that  there  was  an  indig- 
enous culture  of  no  mean  order  among  the  neolithic 
inhabitants  of  Western  Europe.  Among  the  con- 
spicuous evidences  of  the  civic  organization  and  me- 
chanical skill  of  neolithic  man  the  dolmens  and  other 
prehistoric  stone  monuments  of  great  size  abounding 
in  Western  Europe  are  worthy  of  prominent  mention. 

Dolmens  in  their  simplest  form  consist  of  from 
three  to  five  upright  stones  of  large  size,  five  or  six 
feet  high,  set  up  on  end,  and  covered  by  a  capstone  of 
still  larger  size.  The  dolmen  at  Kit's  Cotty  House, 
between  Rochester  and  Maidstone  in  England,  has  a 
capstone  measuring  eleven  by  eight  feet.  The  me- 
chanical problem  of  balancing  such  a  capstone,  weigh- 
ing many  tons,  upon  three  upright  stone  pillars  is 
an  extremely  difficult  one,  and  has  greatly  puzzled 
students  of  these  remarkable  structures.  Probably, 
however,  it  was  accomplished  by  first  piling  a  mound 


()ii<^'ui   of  the  Rdccs  of  Europe  123 

of  earth  arouiul  the  piUars,  and  then  moving;  the 
capstone  along  the  inclined  plane  thus  formed  until  it 
\\'as  properly  centered  and  afterwards  removing  the 
earth  so  as  to  leave  the  covering  in  its  present  poised 
position.  All  this  is  easily  enough  said,  but  not  so 
easily  done.  Its  accomplishment  implies  keen  fore- 
sight and  strong  mechanical  imagination,  combined 
with  a  considerable  power  in  organizing  and  utilizing 
the  work  of  his  fellow  men. 

For  the  most  part  these  dolmens  evidently  belong  to 
the  neolithic  period,  and  so  are  evidence  of  the  ad- 
vancement of  man  in  Western  Europe  during  that 
prehistoric  epoch.  They  abound  in  Northern  Africa, 
Western  Europe  (especially  in  Brittany  and  in  Great 
Britain)  and  in  Northern  Germany,  Denmark,  South- 
ern Sweden,  Southern  Russia,  and  the  Crimea,  and 
thence  on  tlirough  Central  Asia  into  India  where 
they  are  widely  distributed.  In  India  and  Africa 
these  singular  structures  have  been  erected  in  com- 
paratively recent  times,  but  in  Europe  they  are  evi- 
dently remnants  of  prehistoric  hum.an  effort  and 
accomplishment.  It  is  noticeable  that  these  dolmens 
follow  lines  of  Aryan  emigration  and  Aryan  race 
location,  for  the  most  part.  They  do  so  in  India  and 
on  the  way  thither.  Northern  Africa  is  the  only 
possible  exception,   and    it   is   easily  accounted   for  by 


Prehistoric   Monoliths    at    Aksur,   Abyssinia.      (Courtesy   of 
Records  of  the  Past.) 


Orii^in  of  the  Races  of  Europe  125 

lateness  of  the  usage  there.  It  may  be  a  borrowed 
art  obtained  from  Aryan  centers  of  culture  or  it  may 
have  been  carried  there  by  late  Aryan  immigrants, 
who  followed  traditional  fashions  in  these  monuments. 

Even  more  remarkable  are  some  of  the  monoliths 
which  have  been  erected  in  many  places  by  prehistoric 
man  in  Western  Europe.  Two  of  large  size  rising 
fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the  ground  may  be  seen 
near  the  road  running  from  York,  England,  to  Aid- 
borough,  the  ancient  capital.  These  must  have  been 
brought  several  miles  across  broken  country;  for  they 
are  not  the  rock  of  the  immediate  vicinity.  At  Car- 
nac  in  Brittany,  France,  a  monolith  of  prehistoric  age 
is  sixtv-three  feet  high  and  fourteen  feet  in  diameter 
and  is  estimated  to  weigh  two  hundred  and  sixty  tons. 

Nor  was  neolithic  man  wholly  devoid  of  artistic 
capacity.  The  stone  implements  fashioned  by  him  are 
often  symmetrical  and  beautiful  and  \try  difficult  of 
manufacture.  In  the  Scandinavian  kitchen  middens 
are  found  chipped  flint  daggers  of  exquisite  form, 
ministering  to  a  high  sense  of  beauty  as  well  as  to 
direct  utility.  The  smooth  stone  implements  are 
often  of  even  greater  beauty  and  difficulty  of  manu- 
facture. To  fashion  a  hard  diorite  mass  into  a  sym- 
metrical axf'  with  a  hole  bored  in  the  middle  for  a 
handle,    requires    a    very    high    degree    of   skill.      Yet 


126  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

implements  of  this  sort  are  the  rule  and  not  the  ex- 
ception in  the  shell  heaps  of  Denmark  and  Scandi- 
navia. 

Carvings  upon  ivory  and  bone  are  also  by  no 
means  infrequent  in  the  abandoned  dwelling  places  of 
neolithic  man.  Several  described  by  Bertrand  and 
Reinach  from  the  grotto  of  Mas  d'Azil,  in  the  ex- 
treme southwestern  corner  of  Europe,  give  evidence 
that  man  in  those  primitive  conditions  had  there 
domesticated  the  reindeer,  the  horse,  and  the  ox ; 
while,  as  already  remarked,  in  the  lake  dwellings  of 
Switzerland  there  is  revealed  in  the  relics  found,  a 
knowledge  of  agriculture,  of  the  manufacture  of  pot- 
tery, and  of  the  domestication  of  animals,  long  before 
the  inhabitants  of  the  region  had  any  contact  with 
the  higher  civilization  w^hich  developed  in  the  East. 
A  carving  on  bone  from  Thayngen,  reproduced  by 
Heim,  represents  a  reindeer,  with  an  artistic  skill 
that  would  do  credit  to  a  modern  craftsman. 

The  lake  dwellings  of  Switzerland  give  abundant 
evidence,  however,  that  the  broad-headed  race  did  not 
at  the  outset  bring  with  them  into  Europe  the  culture 
of  the  bronze  age.  For  the  skulls  of  the  lake  dwel- 
ers  were  as  broad  as  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Alpine  region  at  the  present  time;  while  the  culture 
revealed    in    the    lowest    strat!a   oi   the   pile    dwellers' 


Orii^ifi   of  /he  Races  of  Europe  127 

refuse  is  only  that  of  the  stone  age.  Tlie  use  of 
bronze  and  iron  came  in  gradually  as  well  as  tliat 
of   domestic   animals. 

The  tinal  conclusion  concerning  these  questions  is 
well  stated  by  Ripley  as  follows: 

"  The  nearly  contemporaneous  appearance  of  the 
Alpine  race  and  the  first  knowledge  of  metals,  indica- 
tive of  Oriental  cultural  influences  in  western  Eu- 
rope, is  more  or  less  a  coincidence.  The  first  civilized 
peoples  of  the  Hallstatt  period  seem  to  have  been 
closely  allied,  both  in  physical  type  and  culture,  wnth 
the  Greeks  and  other  peoples  of  the  classic  East. 
Among  them,  perhaps  over  them,  swept  the  representa- 
tives of  our  broad-headed  Alpine  type  who  came  froVn 
the  direction  of  Asia.  These  invaders  may  have  been 
the  Scythians,  although  the  matter  is  incapable  of 
proof.  Pressure  from  this  direction  set  both  culture 
and  population  in  motion  toward  the  west,  in  much 
the  same  way  that  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  the 
fifteenth  centurv  induced  the  Renaissance  in   Italv."  ^ 


/ 


128  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


CHAPTER    V 

THE  ORIGIN  AND  ANTIQUITY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  INDIAN 

America  has  no  written  records  previous  to  its 
discovery  by  Columbus  in  1492.  In  reconstructing 
the  history,  therefore,  we  must  be  content  with  such 
light  as  is  thrown  upon  the  subject  by  various  natural 
sciences,  especially  philology,  comparative  anatomy, 
geology,  sociology,  and  archaeology. 

At  the  outset,  however,  it  is  important  to  note  that 
the  Red  Indian  of  America  is  sharply  separated  in 
many  wmvs  from  the  Eskimo  of  the  Arctic  region.  So 
that,  for  the  present,  we  will  confine  our  attention  to 
the  Red  Indian  who  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus,  was  spread  over  the  continent 
from  sea  to  sea  and  from  Alaska  to  Patagonia.  Not- 
withstanding their  diversities  in  dialect  and  civiliza- 
tion, their  resemblances  are  so  many  and  so  striking  as 
to  separate  them  from  the  other  races  of  the  world, 
and  to  gather  them  into  a  unity  by  themselves.  The 
best  informed  students  of  the  subject  affirm  that  physi- 
ologically, linguistically,  and  politically  the  races  of 
North    and    South   America   betray   a  common   origin 


Ori'^in  (uul  Anti'iiiil\  of  the  Amcricdti  Indian  1 29 

with    onl}'   such    diversities    as   the   conditions   of    life 
and   the  lapse  of  time  might  naturally  produce. 

1.  The  lan'^uage  of  the  native  races  of  America  is 
what  has  already  been  described  as  agglutinative  or 
"  polysynthetic,"  abounding  in  combinations  and  re- 
finements of  grammar  which  throw  into  shade  even 
the  language  of  classic  Greece.  Thus,  w^hile  differ- 
ing in  many  minor  particulars,  the  grammatical  struct- 
ure of  all  the  Indian  languages  is  so  much  alike  as  to 
indicate  a  common  origin  at  some  time  in  the  distant 
past.  Old  words  have  dropped  out  and  new  ones 
have  come  in,  but  the  structure  of  the  language  re- 
mains essentially  the  same.  In  the  Ojibway  language, 
for  example,  one  can  but  be  impressed  with  the  dis- 
criminations which  appear  in  the  inflection  of  the 
verb.  An  instance  appears  in  the  first  person  plural 
which  has  a  form  expressing  a  "  we,"  meaning  you 
and  I,  and  a  "we,"  meaning  //zrv  and  I.  Among 
moods  they  have  not  only  a  form  to  express  the  sim- 
ple subjunctive,  as,  //  /  see  him:  but  one  to  express 
the  additional  idea,  //'  /  see  him,  as  I  probably  do. 
With  two  words  they  express  the  idea,  //  /  understand 
you,  OS  I  probably  do,  rve  li'ill  finish  ivhat  we  wished 
to  do.  Kic-pim-ne-si-to-nin-o-ni-mo-gul-o-gwen  ki-ga- 
gi-dji-to-min-wa-i-dji-tci-gc-yung. 

2.  Again,   there   was^   at   the  time  of   its  discovery 


130  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

by  Columbus,  from  the  Arctic  Sea  to  Patagonia,  a 
remarkable  similarity  in  the  arts  and  customs  of  all 
the  inhabitants  of  America.  The  Indians  had  no- 
where advanced,  except  perhaps  to  a  limited  extent 
in  Peru,  beyond  the  culture  possible  in  an  age  of 
stone  implements.  The  copper  implements  found  in 
North  America  are  insignificant,  and  were  merely 
hammered,  cold,  from  the  native  metal.  The  arts 
of  making  pottery,  of  weaving,  and  of  tanning  skins, 
were  at  a  pretty  uniform  stage  oi  development  all 
over  the  continent. 

3.  With  wonderful  patience  of  research,  and  with 
a  great  wealth  of  illustration,  Mr.  Levvis  H.  Mor- 
gan ^  has  shown  that  the  domestic,  social,  political 
and  military  customs  of  the  village  Indians  of  New 
Mexico,  and  probably  of  the  Indians  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America  in  their  highest  state  of  development, 
are  substantially  one  with  those  of  the  Iroquois  of 
New  York  and  of  the  purely  roving  tribes  farther 
north.  According  to  Mr.  Morgan,  it  is  the  vivid 
imagination  of  the  Spanish  historian  which  applied 
the  title  *'  king  "  or  "  emperor  "  to  Montezuma.  The 
Mexico  subdued  by  Cortez  was  not  a  despotic  power 
under  the  control  of  hereditary  rulers,  but  was 
merely  a  remarkable  confederacy  of  Indian  tribes, 
like  that  of  the  Six  Nations  in  New  York.    The  won- 


Origin  and  Antuiuiiy  of  the  A nicr'niin  Indian   \  },\ 

derful  palaces  of  Mexico  described  by  the  Spanish 
historians  arc  likewise  declared  by  Mr.  Morgan  to  be 
largely  the  product  of  their  imagination.  These  his- 
torians transferred  the  conceptions  of  European  archi- 
tecture to  the  communal  houses  of  the  Aztecs  m 
Mexico,  which  were  but  improvements  upon  the 
pueblos  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  which  also  are, 
in  turn,  but  modifications  of  tlie  "  long  bark  houses 
of  the  Iroquois,  designed  for  twenty  families."  The 
social  organization  and  mode  of  government  pervad- 
ing all  America  at  the  time  of  its  discovery,  was  a  mili- 
tary "  democracy,  based  upon  communism  in  living." 
The  Indian,  nowhere,  ever  had  a  title  in  fee  simple 
to  a  solitar)^  foot  of  land. 

All  this  arises  from  the  mode  of  reckoning  blood 
relationship  among  the  Indians  of  America,  which  is 
so  characteristic,  so  complicated,  and  so  uniform  that 
it  could  not  have  arisen  by  accident,  but  must  have 
had  its  origin  in  community  of  descent.  P'urthermore, 
these  peculiarities  of  reckoning  affinity,  show  that  the 
ancestors  of  the  American  Indians  must  have  been 
one  with  the  ancestors  of  various  nations  in  Asia 
speaking  the  Turanian  language,  prominent  among 
which  are  the  Tamils  of  India,  classified  as  Dravid- 
ians.  Still  further  the  facts  seem  to  prove  that  the 
ancestors   of   the   American    Indians    and   of   the   Tu- 


132  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ranian  race  of  Asia  had  separated  from  the  common 
stock  previous  to  the  spread  of  the  so-called  Aryan 
civilization  over  India  and  Europe. 

Mr.  Morgan's  researches  upon  this  point  are  so 
Interesting  and  instructive  that  we  may  profitably  de- 
vote a  few  paragraphs  to  them. 

European  nations  inherit  from  the  earliest  times  a 
descriptive  mode  of  expressing  consanguinity.  This 
mode  is  specially  adapted  to  a  state  of  society  in  which 
Individual  rights  to  property  are  recognized  and 
where  estates  are  to  be  distributed.  In  this  plan  it 
Is  Important  to  recognize  the  degree  in  which  blood 
relations  are  separated  from  each  other.  If  an  es- 
tate is  to  be  distributed  among  all  the  descendants  of 
Its  original  possessor,  it  Is  important  for  the  surviv- 
ing relatives  to  know  how  large  a  number  there  may 
be  to  claim  a  portion.  Our  third  cousin,  for  exam- 
ple, is  the  great-grandchild  of  our  great-great  uncle. 
With  our  mode  of  calculation,  blood  relationship  is 
made  to  appear  so  slight  that  at  a  few  degrees  re- 
moved it  ceases  to  be  of  any  account.  The  number 
of  fourteenth  cousins  which  every  person  ought  to 
have.  Is,  according  to  Blackstone's  computation,  not 
less  than  sixty-seven  millions.  The  number  of  a  per- 
son's ancestors,  as  we  recede  in  time,  likewise  in- 
creases  with   striking   rapidity.      Each   one   of   us   has 


()ri<^in  diid  Jntiqiiity  of  the  Aincricdn  I/idian  133 

four  2;randparcnts,  cii2;ht  great-grandparents,  and  so 
on.  If  there  had  been  no  Intermarriage  of  relatives 
for  twenty  generations  back,  each  person  would  find 
himself  the  possessor  of  more  than  a  million  ancestors, 
living  at  the  time  of  the  Crusades. 

With  our  system  of  classification  we  attempt  to 
describe  the  exact  degree  of  relationship,  as  in  the 
terms  grandfather,  great-grandfather,  grandson,  great- 
grandson,  uncle,  great-uncle,  nephew,  great-nephew, 
and  cousins  to  any  required  degree.  But  the  mode 
of  reckoning  relationship  common  to  the  Indian  tribes 
and  the  Turanian  races  of  Asia  is  based  on  an  entirely 
different  conception.  The  Indian,  in  common  with 
the  Tamil,  did  not  recognize  the  relationship  of 
cousin,  but  he  reckons  the  children  of  his  brothers  as 
his  own  sons  and  daughters,  and  as  brothers  and  sis- 
ters of  his  own  children,  who  are  all  classed  in  one 
family.  I^he  children  of  his  sister,  who  is  likely  to 
have  married  out  of  his  tribe,  are  indeed  nephews  and 
nieces.  But  all  the  others  whom  we  would  call  our 
cousins  would  be  reckoned  as  the  grandsons  of  our 
father,  and  as  our  own  sons  and  daughters.  Thus 
we  at  once  see  in  this  mode  of  reckoning  relationships 
a  partial  similarity  to  that  used  by  the  Jews,  which 
has  led  to  so  much  misunderstanding  in  efforts  to  ob- 
tain chronology  from  the  Biblical  records. 


134  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

In  view  of  the  suggestions  just  made  as  to  the 
Asiatic  origin  of  the  American  Indian,  it  will  be 
profitable  to  dwell  upon  the  facilities  afforded  even 
in  present  geographical  conditions  for  a  migration 
from  Eastern  Asia  to  Western  North  America.  Behr- 
ing  Strait  being  less  than  fifty  miles  wide,  and  having 
an  island  half  way  across,  affords  abundant  opportu- 
nity for  the  migration  of  Asiatic  tribes  to  the  milder 
climate  of  Alnska.  The  Eskimo  now  frequently  cross 
in  their  small  boats.  The  Aleutian  Islands,  several 
hundred  miles  farther  south,  afford  frequent  and  reg- 
ular landing  places,  inviting  emigration  by  easy  stages 
from  Kamchatka  to  the  southern  part  of  Alaska. 
Such,  also,  is  the  course  of  the  ocean  currents  in  the 
Pacific  as  to  favor  a  line  of  migration  pretty  well  to 
the  south,  and  the  wrecks  of  Japanese  ships  are  fre- 
quently cast  upon  the  American  coast  even  in  the 
vicinity  of  Puget  Sound.  Mr.  C.  W.  Brooks,  of 
San  Francisco,  gives  forty-one  instances  of  such 
wrecks  occurring  during  the  past  century,  twenty- 
nine  of  which  contained  a  portion  of  the  crew  alive. 
These  facts  show  that  there  was  more  than  one  feas- 
ible route  for  emigration  from  Asia  to  North  Amer- 
ica, and  that  there  is  no  insuperable  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  supposing  such  an  emigration  at  a  very  early 
period  of  human  history. 


()ri<^in  (uul  Anti<in'i1y  of  the  A mcricdii  IikI'kui   1.5 5 

To  xMr.  Morgan,  also,  \vc  are  indebted  for  tlie 
clearest  presentation  of  the  considerations  which  pjive 
supreme  importance  to  the  country  about  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  River  as  a  center  for  the  dispersion 
of  Indian  tribes.  In  the  islands  of  Puget  Sound  and 
in  the  lower  valleys  of  the  Fraser  and  Columbia  riv- 
ers we  find  the  most  perfect  paradise  in  the  world  for 
savage  tribes.  Here  are  forests  for  their  protection 
and  fish  in  boundless  quantities  for  their  sustenance. 
The  crowds  of  salmon  which  press  up  the  Columbia 
River  during  the  two  or  three  summer  months  are 
beyond  all  calculation.  During  the  spawning  season 
these  powerful  and  noble  fish  ever  head  up  stream, 
leaping  waterfalls  many  feet  in  height,  and  urging 
their  way  onward  to  the  fastnesses  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  In  such  numbers  do  they  come  that 
oftentimes  those  crowding  behind  push  great  quan- 
tities of  their  fellows  out  upon  the  dry  land,  and  at 
every  rapid  and  waterfall  they  can  be  caught  in  the 
most  primitive  manner  with  the  greatest  ease. 

With  salmon  as  the  basis  of  their  diet  the  aborig- 
ines were  also  supplied  in  this  region  with  much  small 
game  and  with  two  or  three  most  valuable  esculent 
roots,  the  most  important  of  which  is  the  kamash, 
which  is  found  in  great  quantities,  and  which  after 
being   baked    makes  a  palatable   and   nutritious   flour. 


136  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

There  is  also  an  edible  moss  growing  upon  pine  trees, 
which  may  serve  an  important  purpose  as  vegetable 
food.  Nuts  and  berries  also  abound,  while  oysters  and 
clams  were  ever  within  reach.  No  place  probably  in 
the  world  furnishes  equal  facilities  with  this  for  the 
maintenance  of  life  among  savage  tribes.  This  would 
naturally  make  of  the  region  a  breeding  place  where 
population  w^ould  increase  until  an  overflow  was 
necessary;  and  so  we  find  that  from  the  first  discov- 
ery of  this  region  there  was  in  it,  for  savage  tribes, 
an  unusual  density  of  population,  and  it  becomes  of 
interest  to  study  the  natural  lines  leading  out  from 
this  region  to  the  other  portions  of  the  continent. 

Following  the  fish  up  Fraser  River  and  the  main 
branch  of  the  Columbia,  the  advance  guard  of  the 
immigration  would  be  brought  in  close  proximity  to 
the  headwaters  of  the  Saskatchewan  and  Missouri 
rivers,  along  whose  courses  they  would  eventually  be 
brought  to  the  central  portion  of  the  continent  and 
to  the  occupation  of  the  whole  region  covered  by  the 
basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Most  significant,  however,  would  have  been  the  line 
of  migration  extending  up  the  south  fork  of  the  Co- 
lumbia; or  what  is  now  called  Snake  River.  This 
course  would  bring  the  migratory  tribes  into  close 
proximity  to  the  headwaters  of  the  streams  which  flow 


Oriirln  and  rJ/iti^/uity  of  the  Anicricdii  Indian  1.^7 

to  the  south  and  lead  into  the  region  where  some  of 
the  important  discoveries  of  domestic  plants  have  been 
made. 

Of  these  that  of  Indian  corn,  or  maize,  is  perhaps 
the  most  important.  This  was  found  by  the  whites 
almost  as  widely  dispersed  as  were  the  aborigines 
themselves  upon  this  continent.  Yet  it  could  not 
have  originated  in  New  England  or  the  Mississippi 
Valley  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  keeping  the  seed 
from  one  year  to  another.  Everything  points  to  the 
more  tem.perate  and  arid  regions  in  New  Mexico 
or  Arizona  as  the  place  where  the  conditions  were 
favorable  for  the  spontaneous  development  of  this 
most  useful  plant.  Here  doubtless  it  was  that  In- 
dian corn  was  discovered  and  utilized  by  man.  In 
the  same  region  and  farther  south  other  most  im- 
portant plants  capable  of  domestication  were  also 
encountered.  Among  the  most  important  of  these 
were  species  of  beans  and  squash. 

But  agriculture  w\as  never  carried  to  a  high  degree 
by  any  of  the  tribes  of  America.  Their  corn  fields 
were  little  more  than  garden  patches.  Indeed,  with 
their  stage  of  development  it  could  not  be  otherwise, 
since  they  were  confined  to  the  use  of  implements 
made  of  wood  and  stone  with  which  to  cultivate  the 
soil.     Nor    could    they    with    these    implements    clear 


138  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  countr}^  of  forests,  but  must  be  limited  for  the 
m.ost  part  to  such  areas  near  the  streams  as  were  free 
from  timber. 

Considerint.';  these  lines  of  migration  in  their  order, 
it  is  thought  that  they  can  be  traced  in  the  results  as 
they  appeared  upon  the  first  exploration  of  America 
by  the  whites.  First,  there  were  the  Algonquin  tribes 
which  occupied  the  region  north  of  the  Great  Lakes 
and  had  pressed  southward  into  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley to  Tennessee  and  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  to 
the  Carolinas.  These  had  naturally  passed  from  the 
Fraser  and  Columbia  rivers  into  the  Saskatchewan, 
and  so  to  the  Red  River  of  the  North  and  the  regions 
east  and  south.  The  whole  disposition  of  the  tribes 
imph'es  such  a  center  of  distribution. 

Second,  there  were  the  tribes  most  closely  affiliated 
with  the  present  Sioux,  or  Dakotah,  Indians,  includ- 
ing the  Assiniboines,  the  Winnebagoes,  the  Man- 
dans,  and  the  Iroquois.  From  their  distribution  they 
would  seem  to  have  penetrated  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley through  the  Platte  River  and  to  have  spread  north 
and  south  from  its  mouth. 

Third,  the  Pawnees  can  with  considerable  certainty 
be  traced  up  the  Arkansas  River  to  the  same  center 
and  they  are  distributed  from  the  mouth  of  the  Arkan- 
sas as  though  that  had  been  their  line  of  movement. 


Orii^in  and  Antifjiiity  of  the  J nicriaui  Indian   139 

Fourth,  the  Shoshone  migration,  which  is  still  in 
progress,  is  from  the  same  center  southeastward  by 
the  Arkansas  into  Texas  and  southwestward  into 
Lower   California. 

The  persistency  with  which  these  migrations  fol- 
lowed the  lines  of  the  rivers  is  not  surprising  when 
we  consider  the  disabilities  under  which  savage  races 
maintain  their  existence.  Originally  the  Indians  were 
without  horses,  and  so  could  with  difficulty  contend 
with  the  buffalo  of  the  plains.  Indeed,  the  w^ide 
prairies  and  plains  would  seem  to  present  insuperable 
barriers  to  savage  migration.  Savages  need  the  pro- 
tection of  the  forests.  They  need  also  its  game,  and 
exist  with  difficulty  when  out  of  the  reach  of  fish.  It 
is  only  after  the  advent  of  the  horse  that  the  savage 
could  even  partially  contend  against  the  difficulties  of 
existence  upon  the  prairies. 

So  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  Roving  Indians.  In 
some  respects  a  more  significant  migration,  naturally 
traced  to  the  same  source,  is  that  of  the  Village  In- 
dians, who,  by  some  happy  accident,  on  reaching  the 
warmer  climate  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  dis- 
covered and  i:)egan  to  utilize  the  domestic  plants  to 
which  we  have  already  referred,  namely,  Indian  corn, 
beans,  and  squash,  to  which  may  be  added  cotton  and 
tobacco,  and  at  a  later  time  the  potato.    With  regard 


/  i 


I40  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  these  Village  Indians  Mr.  Morgan  has  clearly 
shown  that  their  organization  is  not  essentially  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  roving  tribes,  and  that  their 
advancement  in  the  arts  is  extremely  limited,  while 
their  form  of  government  is  such  that  none  of  them 
were  ever  consolidated  into  a  strong  nation.  From 
the  necessities  of  the  case  the  areas  of  land  cultivated 
by  them  were  small  and  from  the  comparative  isola- 
tion of  their  villages  and  the  feeble  bond  of  their 
political  alliances  they  were  constantly  subject  to 
incursions  from  the  north.  Of  this  there  was  even 
traditional  evidence  existing  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
quest of  Mexico  by  the  Spaniards.  The  Aztecs  were 
from  the  north,  and  their  advent  into  Mexico  had 
been  so  recent  that  the  particulars  of  it  were  retained 
in  considerable  detail,  and  it  is  pretty  certain  that 
thev  had  not  been  in  possession  of  the  country  more 
than  three  or  four  hundred  years. 

Of  the  population  of  South  America  wt  can  speak 
with  less  confidence,  though  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  they  entered  the  continent  from  the  north.  This 
we  should  infer  from  the  extreme  difficulty,  if  not 
impossibility,  of  reaching  South  America  from  any  of 
the  islands  of  Oceanica,  with  only  the  savage's  means 
of  navigation.  They  would  be  more  likely  to  reach  it 
from   Africa,   but   the    Indians  of   South   America   do 


Orli^ln  and  AntKin'ity  of  the  Jiiicii((ui  Ind'uin   141 

not  belonc;  to  the  same  race  witli  the  Polynesians  or 
the  Negroes  of  Africa.  There  are,  indeed,  reports 
of  some  isolated  communities  of  Negroes  which  n  ay 
thus  have  reached  the  continent.  But,  for  the  most 
part,  the  aborigines  of  South  America  are  so  nearly 
of  the  same  race  with  those  in  North  America,  as  to 
justify  the  inference  that  they  had  at  a  very  early 
period  been  pushed  across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  by 
the  constant  pressure  of  the  roving  tribes  behind, 
which,  from  time  to  time,  had  emerged  from  the  val- 
ley of  the  Columbia.  Following  down  the  Andes 
upon  either  side  these  spread  over  the  continent,  pen- 
etrating on  one  hand  to  the  wilds  of  Patagonia  and 
on  the  other  hand  to  the  more  congenial  islands  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea. 

This  part  of  the  subject  is  not  complete  without  a 
word  concerning  the  Mound  Builders  -  in  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio.  On  the  earliest 
exploration  of  this  interior  region  the  attention  of  the 
explorers  was  attracted  by  vast  earthworks  which 
seemed  to  be  the  remnants  of  an  earlier  civilization 
that  had  wholly  disappeared.  These  earthworks  con- 
sisted of  mounds,  truncated  pyramids,  vast  circular 
enclosures,  and  fortifications.  Hie  size  of  some  of 
these  is  very  impressive.  One  of  the  mounds  near 
Wheeling  is  seventy   feet  in  height  and  one  thousand 


142  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


Cahokia    Mound    restored. 

feet  in  circumference  at  the  base.  The  Cahokia 
Mound  in  Illinois,  just  east  of  St.  Louis,  covers  a 
space  of  twelve  acres,  and  rises  by  four  terraces  to 
a  height  of  ninety  feet.  The  cubical  contents  of  it 
may  be  estimated  at  600,000  cubic  yards,  and  its  con- 
struction would  occupy  a  thousand  Indians  for  a 
period  of  eight  years.  In  the  same  vicinity  were  also 
sixty  other  mounds,  several  of  which  are  from  thirty 
to  sixty  feet  in  height. 

In  other  places  there  are  elaborate  systems  of  forti- 
fications as  at  Marietta,  Ohio,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio,  where  there  were  two  enclosures  of  forty  and 
twenty  acres  respectively,  surrounded  by  embankments 
five  or  six  feet  in  height  by  twenty  at  the  base.     In 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  the  J nwrinin  Indian   143 

the  vicinity  of  Newark,  Ohio,  there  originally  existed 
a    network    of    embankments    measuring    all    together 
many  miles  in  length,  and  there  still  remain  a  circu- 
lar  enclosure    of   thirty   acres,    a   square   enclosure   of 
twenty,    and    an    octagonal   one   of   fifty    acres.      The 
embankments   of    the    circular    enclosure    are    no    less 
than  fifteen  feet  high,  and  near  the  entrance  they  are 
fully  thirty  feet  in   height,   while  on   the  inside  there 
is  a  continuous  ditch  five  or  six  feet  in  depth.     Of  the 
fortifications,  the  one  in  Highland  County  called  Fort 
Hill   consists  of  an  embankment   around   the  summit 
of  one  of  the  highest  eminences.      It  encloses  thirty- 
five  acres,  is  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length 
and  contains   upwards  of   50,000  cubic  yards  of   ma- 
terial.     Upon    the  Little    Miami   River,    about  thirty 
miles  above  its  mouth,   there  is   found  the  largest  of 
all   these  fortifications  known  as  Fort  Ancient,  where 
a  position  of  great  natural  strength  is  surrounded  by 
an    embankment    four    miles    in    extent,    rising    to    a 
height  of  eighteen  to  twenty   feet  above  the  surface. 
The    total    amount    of    earth    contained    in    the    pro- 
tective   wall    is    estimated    to    be    172,000,000    cubic 
ieet. 

Near  Chillicothe  in  the  Scioto  Valley,  and  in  the 
valley  of  the  Little  Aliami  below  Fort  Ancient  there 
are  remarkable  clusters  of  mounds  and  earthworks  of 


Plan    of    Fort    Ancient.       (Courtesy    of    the    Ohio    Archaeological    and 
Historical   Society.) 


(^'■i<{i.'i  and  .1  ni'ifjii'tly  of  flic  J nu'iiitin  l/ulia/i   145 

which  it  is  possible,  for  \\-aiit  of  room,  to  speak  only 
of  two  or  three  irroups,  and  of  these  only  to  mention 
the  witness  which  their  contents  bear  to  the  wide 
commerce  of  the  period.  From  a  single  mound  in 
the  Flopeweli  group  near  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  Pro- 
fessor Moorehead  reports  that  8,185  flint  disks,  each 
one  weighing  on  an  average  one  pound,  were  taken. 
I'hese  had  been  brought  from  the  southern  part  of 
Indiana,  or  Illinois,  and  were  only  roughly  trimmed, 
evidently  having  been  *'  cached  "  to  await  a  con- 
venient opportunity  to  make  the  material  up  into 
perfect  implements.  In  other  mounds  of  the  group 
there  was  a  large  number  of  obsidian  arrowheads 
and  spearheads.  The  material  from  which  these 
implements  were  made  is  not  found  nearer  than  the 
Rocky  IMountains,  two  thousand  miles  distant  to  the 
west.  Many  copper  implements  and  ornaments  were 
also  found  here.  These  had  all  been  hammered,  the 
material  being  the  native  copper  of  the  Lake  Su- 
perior region,  several  hundred  miles  to  the  north. 
On  the  other  hand  there  occurred  large  quantities  of 
mica,  some  oi  it  in  sheets  from  fifteen  to  twenty  inches 
in  diameter,  which  must  have  come  from  the  east 
as  far  away  as  North  Carolina.  Shells  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  also  were  found  side  by  side  with 
the   other   material    from    such    far-separated    regions. 


146  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

indicating  a  commerce  almost  as  wide  as  the  conti- 
nent. 

In  a  neighboring  group  of  mounds  (the  Baum) 
Professor  W.  C.  Mills,  Curator  of  the  Ohio  Archae- 
ological and  Historical  Society,  has  found,  in  addi- 
tion to  many  objects  similar  to  those  discovered  by 
Professor  Moorehead,  interesting  indications  of  the 
Mound  Builders'  love  of  ornaments  and  their  in- 
genuity in  gratifjing  their  taste.  In  one  mound  there 
was  found  a  great  number  of  carefully  selected  pearls, 
which  had  evidently  been  fastened  together  upon  a 
string.  Upon  showing  these  to  one  of  the  most 
prominent  experts  in  estimating  the  value  of  precious 
stones  and  gems,  he  was  assured  that  if  these  pearls 
had  been  fresh  they  would  have  a  market  value  at 
the  present  time  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  that  it 
would  probably  require  several  generations  of  Indians 
to  collect  them.  Another  discovery  alongside  of  this 
revealed  the  fact  that  the  supply  of  pearls  was  not 
equal  to  the  demand.  Therefore  the  Indians  had  re- 
sorted to  making  artificial  pearls.  Clay  was  molded 
into  the  shape  of  pearls  and  hardened  in  the  fire, 
when  they  were  skillfully  covered  with  a  malleable 
mica,  whose  luster  closely  resembled  that  of  a  genuine 
pearl. 

From  the  Turner  group  of  mounds,  in  the   Little 


nop 

o 
^    O 


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3-_ 

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or 

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00 

P^ 

w 

n 

148  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Miami  V^alley,  a  few  miles  below  Fort  Ancient,  arti- 
cles were  found  from  an  equally  great  range  of  local- 
ities, mica,  obsidian,  copper,  and  what  has  been  found 
in   no  others,   meteoric   iron,   and   small  quantities   of 

gold. 

In  Wisconsin  were  numerous  mounds  imitating  the 
shape  of  various  animals,  among  others  the  elephant; 
while  in  Ohio  these  animal  forms  were  fewer,  but 
equally  remarkable.  At  Granville,  Ohio,  there  is  a 
mound  in  the  shape  of  an  alligator,  and  in  Adams 
and  Warren  counties  mounds  in  the  shape  of  a  ser- 
pent, the  total  length  of  whose  body  is  in  each  case 
more  than  a  thousand  feet.  These  serpent  mounds 
are  both  in  conspicuous  situations,  suitable  for  the 
performance  .of  religious  ceremonies  in  the  presence 
of  a  vast  concourse  of  people.  That  they  were  con- 
structed for  religious  purposes  cannot  reasonably  be 
doubted.  They  are  near  the  most  thickly  settled 
areas  occupied  by  the  Mound  Builders,  yet  evidently 
they  were  not  located  for  any  utilitarian  purpose. 
The  serpent,  however,  has  been  almost  universally 
employed  as  a  religious  symbol  from  the  earlier 
times,  appearing  on  the  monimients  of  Egypt,  China, 
India,  Mexico,  and  Central  America.  The  serpent 
also  enters  largely  into  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks, 
and   is  not  absent  from  early  Bible  history.    In  view 


Or'i'jirt  (111  (I  Antiquity  of  the  Am  eric  (in  Indian   149 

of  these  facts  it  Is  difficult  to  reject  the  conclusion 
that  the  reliijious  reLi;ard  for  the  serpent  indicated  in 
these  symbolic  mounds  is  an  inheritance  from  the  Old 
World,  and  points  with  so  man}'  other  things  to  an 
Asiatic  origin  of  the  aborigines  of  America. 

In  speculating  upon  the  history  of  the  race  that 
constructed  these  mounds  and  earthworks  w^e  have 
but  a  few  data  to  go  upon,  \et  they  are  of  consider- 
able value.  In  the  first  place,  the  tribes  of  Indians 
occupying  the  region  when  first  explored  by  the 
whites  made  no  use  of  them  and  were  ignorant  of 
their  origin.  In  the  next  place,  from  the  growth  of 
single  trees  in  the  forests  over  the  embankments  it 
seems  evident  that  they  had  been  disused  for  several 
hundred  years.  Thirdly,  there  is  In  many  respects 
a  close  analogy  between  these  various  collections  of 
earthworks  and  the  pueblos  of  New^  Mexico,  Ari- 
zona, and  the  regions  farther  south,  that  Is,  they 
seem  to  have  been  the  work  of  Village  Indians  who 
lived  by  agriculture  and  chose  their  places  of  resi- 
dence on  the  river  banks  where  there  was  much  fer- 
tile soil  easllv  tilled.  The  existence  of  fortifications 
would  Indicate,  without  much  doubt,  that  they  were 
compelled  to  maintain  an  attitude  of  defense,  and 
indeed  It  \\  as  shown  by  Colonel  Whittlesey  long  ago 
that    over    a     large    part    of    Southern    Ohio,    what 


^^W^I^M 


i^mr^..  \\::^i 


152  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

seem  to  be  signal  mounds,  were  erected  in  such  sit- 
uations that  communication  and  warnings  of  danger 
might  be  almost  instantaneously  spread  from  point  to 
point. 

The  vv'hole  appearance  of  the  system  of  mounds  is 
that  they  are  the  work  of  Village  Indians,  who  had 
spread  northward  from  the  region  of  New  Mexico  and 
brought  with  tliem  what  few  arts  they  possessed  to 
the  Ohio  Valley,  and  endeavored  to  transfer  to  that 
region  the  modes  of  life  which  had  developed  in  the 
more  favorable  conditions  of  a  dryer  and  warmer  cli- 
mate. Whether  they  finally  retreated  because  of  the 
incursions  of  the  roving  tribes  from  the  north,  or 
quietly  withdrew  because  of  the  unsuitability  of  the 
conditions  to  their  mode  of  life,  wt  may  never  know. 
But  at  any  rate  we  have  no  grounds  for  attributing 
an  extreme  antiquity  to  them.  Their  arts,  as  shown 
by  the  ornaments  and  utensils  found  in  the  mounds, 
were  not  nuich  in  advance  of  those  of  the  roving 
tribes.  They  vrere  essentially  in  the  stone  age,  but 
to  them  probably  the  roving  tribes  are  indebted  to 
the  lasting  and  priceless  heritage  of  Indian  corn  and 
the  art  of  preserving  and  cultivating  it. 

Lenving  for  the  present  the  Eskimo  out  of  consid- 
eration, a  few  remarks  may  properly  be  made  upon 
the  bearing  of  the   facts  already  presented   upon   the 


:x  3 

o    o 

l-t->      M-, 


■^^ife!-^ 


154  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

antiquity  of  the  Indian  occupancy  of  America.  An 
antiquity  of  some  thousands  of  years  would  seem  to 
be  indicated  by  the  ver\^  fact  that  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  continent  was  occupied.  It  must  have 
been  a  slow  process  by  which  the  waves  of  emigra- 
tion succeeded  each  other,  and,  passing  through  the 
constricted  channel  of  Darien,  spread  to  the  farther- 
most end  of  Patagonia.  The  diversities  of  language, 
and  of  habits  of  life,  indicate  also  a  long  lapse  of 
time  between  their  first  occupancy  of  the  country  and 
their  discovery  by  the  whites.  Or,  if  one  should  take 
the  other  alternative,  and  regard  the  Indians  not  as 
having  descended  from  a  single  stock,  but  as  having 
arrived  upon  the  continent  by  different  lines  of  emi- 
gration and  consisting  originally  of  different  races,  as 
would  then  necessarily  be  the  '  case,  an  enormous 
lapse  of  time  must  have  occurred  before  they  could 
have  so  commingled  as  to  secure  the  present  degree 
of  similarity.  But  this  supposition  verges  so  nearly 
upon  the  incredible  that  we  cannot  be  expected  to 
give  it  much  place  in  our  thought. 

Another  indication  of  the  great  antiquity  of  the 
Indian  race  is  that  already  referred  to  as  derived  from 
the  methods  of  expressing  degrees  of  consanguinity. 
From  this  we  saw  that  the  separation  of  the  Indian 
races  from  the  parent  stock  of  mankind  was  previous 


Ori'^in  and  Antiquity  of  the  American  Indian  155 

to  tlie  rise  of  the  Aryan  civilization.  This  would 
throw  the  oriu;in  of  these  races  on  the  Eastern  conti- 
nent far  back  of  the  oldest  historical  monuments  of 
E^ypt  and  Babylonia.  -  It  would  not,  however,  de- 
termine the  time  of  their  entrance  into  America.  But 
it  should  be  remarked  that  the  descendants  of  the 
first  imnnigrants  would  dominate  and  determine  the 
character  of  all  the  subsequent  racial  developments, 
for  in  a  short  time  the  increase  of  numbers  from  the 
first  migration  would  be  such  that  all  subsequent  mi- 
gration would  be  insignificant  in  its  relative  amount. 
This  we  see  to  be  the  case  even  at  the  present  time. 
The  descendants  of  those  who  came  to  America  in 
the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  are  still 
forming  the  national  character,  notwithstanding  the 
enormous  emigration  made  possible  by  present  modes 
of  travel.  Amid  the  conditions  of  prehistoric  times 
this  result  wmdd  have  been  still  more  apparent  and 
necessary. 

So  far  we  have  considered  only  the  races  and  their 
progenitors  who  are  m  the  present  occupancy  of  the 
continent.  But  recent  investigations  have  brought  to 
light  the  remains  of  what  we  may  well  believe  to  be 
an  earlier  race  that  became  widely  spread  over  the 
continent  before  the  Glacial  epoch  closed,  and  it  will 
be  necessary,  therefore,   for  us  to  discuss  at  consider- 


1 56 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 


able  lenj^th  the  facts  connected  with  the  changes 
accompanying  that,  in  order  to  form  some  intelligent 
opinion  on  the  question  whether  glacial  man  in  Amer- 
ica became  extinct  in  connection  with  the  catastro- 
phe, or  whether  his  descendants  may  still  survive  in 
the  American  Indians  or  in  the  Eskimo. 


Section   of    Fcrt    Ancient. 


Si,cnifiniucc    of    fhc    Glac'ud    Epoch  1 57 

CHAPTER    VI 

SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  GLACIAL  EPOCH 

While  the  tacts  concerning  the  neolithic  age, 
combined  with  those  of  an  anthropological  character, 
carry  us  no  farther  back  in  Europe  than  two  or  three 
thousand  years  before  Christ,  those  concerning  pale- 
olithic man  indicate  a  much  earlier  antiquity.  For 
evidently  he  was  an  inhabitant  of  Europe  amidst 
physical  conditions  far  different  from  those  which 
prevailed  during  neolithic  time.  At  this  point  geology 
assumes  the  role  of  the  principal  w-itness;  for  w^hen 
once  the  existence  of  man  during  the  Glacial  epoch 
was  established,  his  antiquity  became  a  geological 
question.  More  light,  therefore,  seems  likely  to  be 
shed  upon  the  primitive  chronology  of  the  human  race 
from  glacial  geology  than  from  any  other  source  of 
evidencve.  In  fact,  no  studies  bearing  upon  Post- 
Tertiary  geology  can  now  be  reckoned  as  foreign  to 
our  subject.  The  student  must  be  prepared,  there- 
fore, for  extensive  excursions  into  the  geological 
f^eld. 

Apparently    tlie    palTolithic    age    is    separated    from 
the    neolithic    bv     a    wide    geological    chasm     repre- 


f 

158  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

senting  great  physical  changes  both  in  Europe  and 
America.  Our  reliance  in  determining  the  age  of 
palaeolithic  implements  is  not  so  much  upon  their 
rudeness,  as  upon  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  fabricators  spent  their  days.  We  must 
content  ourselves  with  the  briefest  possible  statement 
of  the  data  upon  which  trustworthy  conclusions  can 
be  based. 

To  get  the  evidence  clearly  before  our  minds  it  is 
necessary-  briefly  to  outline  the  facts  concerning  the 
Glacial  epoch.  Evidence  of  the  most  startling  char- 
acter continues  to  accumulate,  proving  that  at  a  com- 
paratively recent  date  arctic  conditions  of  climate 
extended  far  down  into  Central  Europe  and  into 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  In  America.  The  gla- 
ciers which  now  are  confined  to  the  Alps,  the  Scan- 
dinavian highlands,  Greenland,  and  Alaska  formerly 
extended  until  all  the  higher  latitudes  in  Europe  and 
America  were  enveloped  in  glacial  ice  as  Greenland 
is  at  the  present  time.  The  evidences  of  this  are 
indubitable.  Scandinavian  bowlders,  such  as  can  be 
carried  only  by  glacial  ice,  are  found  around  the  arc 
of  a  circle  whose  radius  is  seven  or  eight  hundred 
miles.  From  Scandinavia  as  a  center  the  ice  moved 
eastward  beyond  Novgorod,  southeastward  beyond 
Kiev  in   Russia,   and  southward  over  Northern   Ger* 


Significance   of    the    Glacial   Epoch  159 

many,  and  Saxony  to  the  base  of  the  Erzgeblrge. 
Northern  Holland  was  covered  by  the  ice  sheet,  as 
was  Great  Britain  as  far  south  as  the  Thames.  Scan- 
dinavian bowlders  are  frequent  all  along  the  eastern 
shore  of  England  from  Hull  southward,  and  inland 
to  the  vicinity  of  Cambridge. 

Some  of  the  bowlders  transported  by  this  move- 
ment are  truly  enormous.  A  mass  of  chalk  near 
Malmo  in  Southern  Sweden  has  been  described  by 
Dr.  Hoist  ^  that  is  three  miles  long,  one  thousand 
feet  wide,  and  one  or  two  hundred  feet  thick.  This 
has  glacial  deposits  both  below^  and  above  it,  show- 
ing that  it  is  a  true  glacial  bowlder.  Its  limits  have 
been  determined  by  efforts  to  quarn'  its  valuable  con- 
tents for  commercial  purposes.  Masses  of  chalk  of 
nearly  equal  size,  which  have  been  transported  a  con- 
siderable distance,  are  found  in  Eastern  England.  In 
one  case  a  village  was  found  to  have  been  built  upon 
such  a  bowlder.  The  depth  of  the  glacial  deposits 
over  Northwestern  Russia  and  Northern  Germany 
are  estimated  to  be  135  feet,  while  the  ice  itself,  where 
it  met  the  Harz  Mountains,  was  fully  fourteen  hun- 
dred feet  thick;  for  northern  glacial  debris  is  depos- 
ited on  their  flanks  up  to  that  height.  In  Sweden 
and  Norw^ay  the  thickness  of  the  ice  is  estimated  to 
have  been  at  least  seven  thousand  feet. 


l6o  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

The  ice  sheet  was  not  continuous  over  Central 
Europe.  There  were,  however,  centers  from  which 
it  spread  long  distances  towards  the  northern  field, 
but  failed  to  meet  it.  The  most  important  of  these 
was  that  upon  the  Alps,  where  glaciers  of  consider- 
able size  are  still  found  above  the  five  thousand  foot 
line.  During  the  Glacial  epoch,  however,  they  ex- 
tended down  the  valle)^  of  the  Rhone  as  far  as 
Lyons,  and  of  the  Rhine  150  miles  to  Thiengen,  and 
of  the  Danube  to  Ulm.  Upon  the  south  side  the  gla- 
ciers extended  120  miles  to  the  vicinity  of  the  river 
Po,  at  Turin,  and  Ivrea,  At  Ivrea  the  moraine  hills 
are  fifteen  hundred  feet  thick.  A  bowlder  near  So- 
leure,  which  must  have  been  transported  115  miles, 
would  weigh  4,100  tons.  One  near  Neuchatel,  which 
must  have  been  carried  clear  across  the  valley  of 
Switzerland  from  the  Alps  to  the  Jura  Mountains, 
measures  fifty  by  forty  by  twenty  feet;  while  an- 
other near  Monthei  contains  60,840  cubic  feet.  The 
depth  of  the  ice,  over  the  central  part  of  Switzerland, 
must  have  been  more  than  three  thousand  feet;  and 
the  valley  filled  is  fifty  miles  wide.  From  the  Pyre- 
nees, also,  glaciers  of  considerable  extent  came  down 
into  France  throughout  nearly  their  whole  extent, 
tliat  into  the  upper  valley  of  the  Garonne  attaining 
a  length  of  forty-five  miles.     Altogether  the  ice  fields 


1 62*  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  Europe  during  the  Glacial  epoch  covered  an  area 
of  two  million  square  miles,  and  must  have  had  an 
average  depth  of  fully  one  mile.  This  represents  so 
much  water  abstracted  from  the  ocean  and  locked  up 
over  an  elevated  area,  to  be  let  loose  in  tremendous 
floods  when  the  climatic  conditions  changed. 

In  America  during  this  epoch  the  area  covered  by 
ice  was  fully  twnce  that  in  Europe,  amounting  to 
about  four  million  square  miles,  w^hile  its  depth  is 
variously  estimated  to  have  been  from  one  to  three 
miles.  The  ice  certainly  was  more  than  one  mile 
deep  over  New  England,  for  marks  of  the  movement 
are  found  on  the  summit  of  Mt.  Washington,  w^hich 
is  more  than  six  thousand  feet  high.  The  centers  ot 
dispersion  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  w^re  froni 
Keewatin  west  of  Hudson  Bay,  and  from  Labrador. 
West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  there  was  a  separate 
center  about  half  way  between  Alaska  and  British 
Columbia.  It  is  estimated  by  Professor  Chamberlin  - 
that  there  was  an  actual  movement  transporting  ma- 
terial fully  fifteen  hundred  miles  from  wTst  of  Hud- 
son Bay  to  Southern  Illinois.  Certainly  there  is  an 
immense  amount  of  transported  material  near  the 
Ohio  River  at  Cincinnati,  w^hich  must  have  been 
brought  from  Canada  a  distance  of  seven  or  eight 
hundred  miles.^     In  places  in  Southern  Ohio  the  gla- 


Si'^niifji/incc    of    flic    Glacial   Kporli  163 

cial  debris  Is  hundreds  of  feet  thick.  A  Canadian 
bowlder  seven  hundred  miles  from  its  source  rests 
upon  the  highest  land  near  Lebanon,  Ohio,  which 
measures  twenty,  by  twelve,  by  eight  feet  out  of 
ground.  Many  others  of  nearly  equal  size  are  to  he 
found  in  other  parts  of  the  state. 

The  southern  boundary  of  this  glaciated  area  in 
North  America  runs  along  the  southern  shore  of  New 
England,  through  Long  Island,  the  northern  part  of 
New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  Southeastern  Ohio,  the 
southern  portion  of  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  Central 
Missouri  to  Northeastern  Kansas,  where  it  turns 
north  near  Topeka  and  keeps,  for  two  or  three  hun- 
dred miles,  nearly  parallel  with  the  Missouri  River, 
and  about  one  hundred  miles  west  of  it.  Finally  it 
turns  west  again  and  follows  an  irregular  course  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state 
of  Washington. 

Contrary  to  former  suppositions,  it  was  found  that 
Northern  Alaska  and  the  larger  part  of  Siberia  were 
not  covered  by  glacial  ice.  The  soil  in  these  regions 
is,  however,  even  yet  frozen  to  a  great  depth.  At 
Irkutsk  the  frost  penetrates  the  soil  six  hundred  feet 
below  the  surface."*  In  Northeastern  Siberia  above 
the  sixtieth  degree  of  latitude  there  are  indeed  evi- 
dences of  extended  glaciation,   but  not  in  the  central 


164  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

portion,  which  borders  on  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The 
vast  mountain  s5'Stems  of  Central  Asia  still  support 
great  glaciers  in  their  higher  elevations.  But  though 
they  are  in  the  latitude  of  the  Alps,  they  never  sent 
glaciers  down  to  the  plains  at  their  base  as  did  the 
mountains  of  Europe.  Still  the  former  glaciers  in  the 
Asiatic  mountains  were  far  larger  than  the  present 
ones.  In  the  Tian  Shan  Mountains,  which  separate 
Eastern  Turkestan  from  Siberia  and  Western  Turke- 
stan, it  is  found  that  glaciers  formerly  extended  down 
to  the  level  of  seven  thousand  feet,  but  no  farther. 
The  mountains,  however,  are  much  higher  and  larger 
than  the  Alps.  Some  of  the  peaks  run  up  to  twenty- 
three  thousand  feet,  and  several  to  seventeen  thou- 
sand. The  Glacial  epoch  in  this  region  may  have 
had,  as  we  shall  see,  a  most  important  part  in  influ- 
encing the  early  development  and  distribution  of  the 
human   race. 

The  anomalous  facts  of  the  Glacial  epoch  and  the 
extent  of  the  disturbances  which  it  introduced  into 
the  history  of  species  cannot  be  fully  appreciated  with- 
out going  somewhat  further  into  details  concerning 
its  influence  upon  changes  of  land  levels,  upon  drain- 
age systems,  and  upon  the  survival  and  migration  of 
plants  and  animals.     Both  in  its  inception  and  in  its 


Sii^nificnnre    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  165 

close  the  Glacial  epoch  was  a  catastrophe  of  the  most 
impressive    order.      Throughout,    its    conditions    were 
abnormal.     No  reasonini^  from  present  conditions  can 
applv  to  the  Cdacial   epoch  without  jjreat  reservation. 
It  requires  hut  a  iilance  at  the  map  of  the  glaciated 
region    to    see    that    eiiects    were    produced    upon    the 
drainage  systems  of  both   continents  which   baffle  the 
imagination.    All   the  northerly   flowing  streams  both 
of    Europe    and    America    were    obstructed    at    their 
mouths  and   their  currents  reversed,  w^hile  the  south- 
erly flowing   streams,   whose  headwT.ters  were  jn   the 
glaciated    region,    had    their    volumes    indefinitely    m- 
creased  by  the  augmented  precipitation  characterizing 
the  epoch  in  general,  and  by  the  enormous  amount  of 
water  set  free  by  the  melting  of  the  ice  during  the 
closing  stages.      This    result   is   more   readily  seen    in 
America  than  in  the  Old  World,  for  there  the  valleys 
are  better  defined  and  are  on  a  nuich  larger  scale  than 
in  Europe.     The  obstruction  of  the  St.  Lawrence  by 
the    advancing    ice    turned    immense    floods    of    water 
through    the    Champlain    and    Hudson    valleys;    then, 
a  little  later,   over  the   passes  from  the  Great   Lakes 
into    the    valley   of    the    AL'ssissippi.      The    outlets    to 
these   great   floods  of   glacial   water   are  clearly  trace- 
able through  the  pass  at  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  lead- 
ing  from   the   drainage   basin   of   the   Maumee   River 


1 66  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  that  of  the  Wabash,  and  so  on  into  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi;  also  through  the  line  of  the  Chicago 
Drainage  Canal  into  the  Illinois  River,  the  elevations 
above  the  sea  being  respectively  eight  hundred  and 
six  hundred  feet.  In  both  these  cases  the  abandoned 
channels  are  as  distinct  as  though  they  had  been  occu- 
pied but  yesterday,  and  in  both  cases  are  as  broad  and 
deep  as  the  channel  of  Niagara  where  it  leaves  Lake 
Erie. 

At  a  still  later  stage,  when  the  ice  had  filled  the 
basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  the  increased  volume  of 
water  flowed  directly  into  the  northern  tributaries  of 
the  Ohio,  and  through  the  higher  passes  leading  from 
Central  New  York  into  the  Susquehanna,  while  six 
thousand  square  miles  of  the  upper  basin  of  the  Del- 
aware River  was  deeply  buried  in  ice  to  augment  its 
floods  during  the  seasons  of  rapid  melting. 

Most  astonishing  results  were  also  produced  far- 
ther north  in  the  valley  of  the  Red  River,  in  Canada. 
Here  the  floods  which  now  pour  into  Hudson  Bay 
were  confined  in  a  vast  enclosed  basin  forming  a  lake 
covering  an  area  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
square  miles  and  held  up  to  the  level  of  the  pass 
leading  into  the  Minnesota  River  at  Brown's  \'alley, 
and  thence  into  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Paul.  Of 
course   these   channels   were   opened   and   occupied   in 


Siifnifinincc   of    the    Glacial   Epoch  1O7 

reverse  order  upon  the  melting  of  the  ice  duriivj;  the 
closinii  staLj;es  of  the  period.  As  a  result  of  thr;e 
floods  all  these  south  flowing  streams  are  hordcred  hy 
izravel  terraces  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  above  the  present  high-water  mark.  These  ter- 
races are  composed  largely  of  pebbles  of  the  hard 
Canadian  rocks,  w^hich  were  first  brought  over  the 
watershed  by  the  glacial  ice,  and  then  distributed  by 
the  streams  which  flowed  over  and  in  front  of  the 
retreating  mass.  The  extent  of  the  floods  is  almost 
incomprehensible.  In  the  Missouri  Valley'  the  an- 
nual rise  of  the  river  during  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  closing  stages  of  the  period  was  fully  two  hun- 
dred feet  during  the  latter  part  of  the  summer.  In 
the  Ohio,  at  Cincinnati,  they  were  probably  twice  that 
height;  though,  perhaps,  they  were  augmented  by  a 
glacial   dam.    or   by   ice    gorges  which   obstructed    the 

flow.« 

According  to  an  estimate  based  on  several  seasons' 
study  of  Alaskan  glaciers  by  Professors  R.  S.  Tarr 
and  O.  D.  von  Engeln,'  the  water  supplied  to  the 
Mississippi  River  by  the  melting  of  the  glacial  ice 
sheet  durincj  the  closing  stages  of  the  ice  age  was 
annually  sixty  times  that  carried  off  by  the  present 
flow.  My  estimate  for  the  ^Missouri  was  only 
twentvfold. 


1 68  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

The  epoch  was  also  characterized  by  abnormal 
changes  of  land  levels,  both  in  its  inauguration  and 
in  its  closing  stages.  The  Tertiary  period  closed 
with  a  great  elevation  of  land  over  all  the  northern 
part  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  There  is  indu- 
bitable evidence  that  the  northern  part  of  the  Miss- 
issippi Valley,  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Chesapeake 
Bay  upwards,  and  the  Pacific  coast  in  corresponding 
latitudes,  were  elevated  at  the  beginning  of  the  Glacial 
epoch  fully  two  thousand  feet  above  the  present  level. 
This  evidence  is  found  in  the  deeply  buried  or 
drowned  preglacial  channels  which  have  been  brought 
to  light  all  over  the  areas  mentioned.  For  example, 
a  drowned  channel,  or  rather  caiion,  reaching  to  a 
final  depth  of  two  thousand  feet  can  be  traced  out 
from  New  York  Harbor  across  the  shallow  sub- 
merged shelf  which  borders  the  continent  to  the  deep 
water  one  hundred  miles  from  the  present  shore.  This 
could  only  have  been  formed  when  the  land  stood 
two  thousand  feet  higher  than  now,  and  when  the 
shore  was  at  the  present  border  of  the  deep  water  of 
the  Atlantic. 

Interesting  confirmation  of  this  fact  has  recently 
been  brought  to  light  in  the  construction  of  an  aque- 
duct under  the  Hudson  River  above  West  Point  to 
convey  water  to  New  York  City  from  the  region  of 


1 70  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  Catskills.  For  security  it  was  necessary  to  go 
down  to  the  rock  bottom  of  the  river  for  a  foundation 
to  support  the  conduit.  On  doing  this  it  was  found 
that  at  that  point  this  was  800  feet  below  the  present 
bed  of  the  stream.  In  preglacial  times,  therefore, 
the  present  striking  scenery  of  the  Hudson  would 
have  been  augmented  by  cliffs  rising  half  a  thousand 
feet  higher  than  those  which  now  give  such  grandeur 
to  it.  Channels  buried  in  a  similar  manner  by  gla- 
cial debris  are  abundant  in  Central  New  York,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois.  Other  drowned  canons  like 
that  projecting  out  from  New  York  Harbor  can  be 
traced  from  the  shore  all  along  both  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Pacific  coasts  of  America.  Such  are  specially 
marked  for  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  across  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland,  and 
opposite  the  Columbia  River  and  Puget  Sound  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  The  deep  fiords  of  Southeastern  Alaska 
are  probably  depressed  valleys  of  streams  eroded  dur- 
ing the  elevated  period  preceding  the  Glacial  epoch. 
Similar  evidence  of  a  great  elevation  of  land  in 
late  Tertiary  time,  just  preceding  the  Glacial  epoch, 
is  found  in  Northern  Europe  and  along  the  Atlantic 
border  of  Western  Europe.  Professor  Hull  ^  has 
traced  from  the  Admiralty  surveys  of  the  waters  sur- 
rounding Great  Britain   and   along  the  western  coast 


S'lsnificdncc    of    the    Gldcial    Epoch  17I 

of  France  and   Portugal  drowned  channels  similar  to 
that  just  described  south  of  New  York   Harbor. 

The  fiords  of  Norway  are  also  important  evidences 
of  the  former  elevation  of  the  land  surface  of  that 
region.  They  bear  every  mark  of  bein^^  drowned 
river  fj:or2;es,  like  those  referred  to  in  Alaska.  They 
were  mainly  eroded  by  water  action  during  a  period 
of  elevation  in  Tertiary  times.  But  in  the  Glacial 
epoch  thev  were  filled  with  moving  ice  which  en- 
larged and  deepened  them  and  deposited  morainic  ma- 
terial a  short  distance  out  at  sea,  rendering  the  water 
shallower  there  than  it  is  in  the  fiords  themselves 
where  the  ice  prevented  solid  material  from  accumu- 
lating. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  at  the  close  of  the 
Tertiary  period  the  coast  lines  both  of  Europe  and 
America  were  considerably  outside  of  the  present  ones. 
On  both  continents  the  present  coast  is  bordered  by 
a  shelf  of  shallow  water  not  over  five  or  six  hundred 
feet  deep,  which  is  terminated  by  a  plunge  into  wa- 
ter which  is  several  thousand  feet  deep. 

This  nreglacial  elevation  of  the  land  of  the  Xorth- 
ern  Hemisphere  has  great  significance  with  reference 
to  the  problem  of  the  distribution  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals, including  man.  An  elc\ation  of  a  few  hundred 
feet    would    establish    land    connection    between    Asia 


172  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

and  America  and  laj^  bare  the  whole  bed  of  Behring 
Sea,  together  with  a  wide  strip  all  along  the  west 
coast  of  North  America  as  far  down  as  Mexico.  In 
Europe  it  would  make  dr}^  land' of  the  whole  German 
Ocean,  unite  the  British  Isles  to  the  continent  and 
add  a  wn'de  margin  to  the  whole  western  coast  of 
Europe.  It  would  also  cut  off  connection  between 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Ocean,  and  very 
likely  make  of  it  an  interior  basin  like  that  of  the 
Caspian  Sea  at  the  present  time.  It  requires  but 
slight  inspection  of  the  map  to  see  that  during  this 
period  of  elevation  man  and  many  animals  could  go 
back  and  forth  from  Asia  to  America  and  could  reach 
the  islands  in  the  neighborhood  of  Europe,  and  at  the 
same  time  find  ample  space  for  obtaining  sustenance 
even  while  the  ice  of  the  Glacial  epoch  prevailed  to 
its  greatest  extent  over  the  interior.  Ready  connec- 
tion would  also  be  established  from  Europe  to  Africa, 
not  only  across  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  but  through 
Sicily  and  the  shallow  bed  of  the  sea  extending  south- 
ward from  that  island. 

While  it  is  clear  that  there  was  an  extensive  ele- 
vation of  land  all  over  the  glaciated  area  and  over 
the  adjoining  areas  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  dur- 
ing the  Tertiary  period,  it  is  equally  evident  that  a 
widespread  depression  of  these  areas  accompanied  and 


174  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

followed  the  accumulation  of  glacial  ice.  In  America 
this  glacial  depression  amounted  to  six  hundred  feet 
below  the  present  level  at  Montreal,  and  to  one  thou- 
sand feet  farther  north.  In  Europe  the  shore  lines 
of  this  depression  run  from  near  sea  level  in  the 
south  of  Sweden  to  a  thousand  feet  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  country.  On  the  shore  of  the  Black  Sea 
at  Trebizond  clear  evidence  exists  that  there  was  a 
post-glacial  depression  of  the  land  in  that  region  to 
the  extent  of  750  feet. 

Such  is  the  close  correlation,  of  these  changes  of 
level  with  the  w^axing  and  waning  of  the  Glacial 
epoch,  that  it  is  difficult  not  to  believe  that  there  is 
in  it  a  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  The  preglacial 
elevation  of  land  would  seem  sufficient  to  produce 
the  epoch,  while  the  accumulation  of  ice  w^ould  seem 
equally  sufficient  by  its  own  weight  to  depress  the 
land  and  thereby  partially  restore  the  original  condi- 
tions which  preceded  the  advent  of  the  arctic  climate. 

At  this  point  we  can  profitably  consider  the  ques- 
tion of  the  date  of  the  Glacial  epoch.  So  astonishing 
are  the  events  of  the  period,  and  so  prodigious  are  the 
forces  set  in  motion  that  we  are  likely  to  make  an 
exaggerated  estimate  of  the  time  necessary  for  their 
production.      Under    the    influence    of    Croll's    astro- 


Sii^rfiificcicc    of    fill'    Glacial   Kpocli  175 

noniical  theory  of  the  cause  of  the  epoch  it  was  for- 
merly confidently  stated  that  it  be^an  with  a  period  of 
high  eccentricity  of  the  earth's  orbit  around  the  sun, 
240,000  years  a;j;o,  and  closed  with  the  beginning  of 
the  present  period  of  small  eccentricity,  80,000  years 
ago.  Hut  subsequent  investigations  have  led  geolo- 
gists to  give  less  heed  to  astronomical  theories  and 
more  to  the  terrestrial  facts  which  directly  bear  upon 
the  subject.  Among  these  are  prominent  ( i )  the 
recession  of  post-glacial  waterfalls;  (2)  the  enlarge- 
ment of  post-glacial  river  valleys;  (3)  the  filling  up 
of  post-glacial  lakes  and  ponds;  (4)  the  oxidation  of 
glacial  deposits;  and  (5)  the  subaerial  erosion  of  gla- 
ciated  rock  surfaces. 

(i)  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  nearly  all  the 
waterfalls  in  the  world  are  post-glacial,  and  that 
with  few  striking  exceptions  there  are  no  waterfalls 
in  the  unglaciated  regions.  The  reason  of  this  is  that 
in  the  unglaciated  regions  the  eroding  agencies  have 
been  at  work  so  long  that  they  have  worn  back  the 
gorges  to  the  headwaters  of  the  streams;  while  in  the 
glaciated  region  the  old  gorges  are  generally  filled 
up  with  glacial  debris,  and  new  drainage  lines  have 
been  established  which  are  hence  so  young  that  the 
recession  of  their  waterfalls  has  been  slight.  Post- 
glacial gorges  arc  short  because  thev  are  ^•oumz. 


176  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

One  of  the  most  instructive  and  convenient  of  gla- 
cial chronometers  is  the  gorge  below  the  Falls  of 
Niagara.  That  this  is  post-glacial  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  there  is  a  buried  preglacial  channel  lead- 
ing from.  Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Ontario,  some  distance 
west  of  the  present  river.  Preglacial  time  had  been 
so  long  that  the  stream  connecting  the  lakes  had  worn 
a  channel  completely  through  from  one  lake  to  the 
other  at  the  level  of  the  lower  lake.  This  was  after- 
wards so  filled  up  b}^  glacial  deposits  that,  on  the 
recession  of  the  ice,  the  drainage  was  turned  to  the 
present  course,  and  a  new  gorge  began  to  be  cut.  The 
time  at  which  this  renewed  activit}^  of  the  stream  be- 
gan, however,  was  not  at  the  end  of  the  Glacial 
epoch,  but  a  long  time  before,  namely,  when  the  ice 
first  melted  of^  from  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk  River 
between  the  Adirondack  and  the  Catskill  mountains. 
At  that  time  only  could  the  eastward  drainage  of  the 
Great  Lakes  have  been  resumed,  after  the  long  period 
of  reversal  caused  by  the  obstruction  of  the  conti- 
nental glacier.  For  some  time  after  the  recession  of 
Niagara  Falls,  therefore,  all  the  lower  valley  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  was  enveloped  in  glacial  ice. 

The  gorge  worn  by  the  recession  of  the  Falls  of 
Niagara  is.  in  round  numbers,  only  seven  miles 
long,    extending    to    the    abrupt   escarpment    of    rocks 


S'.i^nificancc    of    ihc    Gl-Jchd    Epoch  177 

at  Queenston,  more  than  three  hundred  feet  h'v^h, 
which  borders  the  southwestern  part  of  the  valley  of 
[.ake  Ontario.  The  rocks  throuj^h  which  the  gorge 
is  worn  are  \ery  uniform  in  their  character.  At  the 
surface  throughout  the  whole  district  there  is  a  solid 
stratum  of  compact  Niagara  limestone,  seventy  or 
eighty  feet  thick  at  the  Falls,  but  thinning  out  to 
fifteen  or  twenty  at  the  mouth  of  the  gorge.  Un- 
derneath the  Niagara  limestone  is  a  deposit  of  shale 
about  seventy  feet  thick,  which  is  easily  eroded 
by  the  backlash  of  the  cataract,  preserving  thus  the 
perpendicular  face  of  the  fall.  Underneath  the  Ni- 
agara shale  is  a  compact  stratum  of  Clinton  lime- 
stone, from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  thick,  which,  again, 
is  underlaid  by  shaly  deposits  sixty  or  seventy  feet 
thick.  Underneath  this  is  a  deposit  of  Medina  sand- 
stone, thirty  or  forty  feet  thick,  and  underneath  that 
an  indefinite  thickness  of  Medina  shale,  reaching  be- 
low the  water's  edge  at  the  mouth  of  the  gorge. 
These  strata,  resting  upon  each  other  like  the  layers 
in  a  layer  cake,  dip  gently  to  the  south,  so  that,  com- 
bined with  the  gradient  of  the  river,  all,  except  the 
Niagara  limestone  and  shale,  are  made  to  disappear 
at  the  cataract.  No  geological  conditions  could  be 
more  uniform  and  calculated  to  yield  more  definite 
results  to  careful  study. 


178  Oriv'm  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Taking  this  gorge  as  the  dividend,  we  search  for 
a  divisor  in  the  annual  rate  at  which  the  Falls  are 
receding.  When  Sir  Charles  Lyell  visited  them  in 
1842,  he  made  a  random  guess  that  the  recession 
could  not  be  more  than  one  foot  a  year,  and  probably 
not  more  than  one  foot  in  three  years.  This  would 
make  the  minimum  age  of  the  gorge  35,000  years, 
and  the  maximum  100,000  or  more.  Unfortunately 
this  random  estimate  has  been  extensively  published 
as  the  mature  opinion  of  a  most  distinguished  author- 
ity in  geology.  But  Lyell  himself  did  not  so  regard 
it.  On  the  contrary,  he  urged  Dr.  John  Hall  of  the 
New  York  Geological  Survey  to  make  an  accurate 
trigonometrical  survey  of  the  Falls,  so  that  there 
would  be  a  basis  of  comparison  for  future  survey's 
w^hich  should  give  definite  and  positive  results.  Sev- 
eral such  surveys  have  been  made,  the  last  after  sixty- 
five  years,  in  1907,  which  shows  that  the  average  rate 
of  recession  of  the  Horseshoe  Falls  during  this  period 
has  been  a  little  over  five  feet  a  year;  so  that,  if  the 
same  forces  had  been  at  work  continuously  in  the  past 
that  are  operative  at  the  present,  Niagara  River 
would  have  eroded  the  whole  gorge  in  seven  thousand 
years. 

With  great  confidence  we  can  locate  the  position 
of  the   Falls   at   different  past   historical    epochs.     For 


Si^nificanci'   of    the    Ghicuil   Epoch  1 7<j 

cxHrnjilc,  at  the  time  of  the  Crusades  the  cataract  was 
about  one-third  of  the  way  down  to  the  head  of  the 
rapids.  At  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Christ  it  was 
two-tliirds  ot  the  way  down  to  tlie  rapids.  When 
the  Falls  had  receded  to  the  head  of  the  rapids,  Rome 
was  being  founded  and  Greece  was  just  entering 
upon  her  classical  career.  When  the  Falls  were  at 
the  whirlpool,  Israel  was  just  entering  Egypt,  while 
the  beginning  of  the  Falls  at  Qiiecnston  occurred 
only  a  short  time  before  the  building  of  the  great 
pyramids,  and  the  expedition  of  Sargon  from  Baby- 
lonia to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  about 
3800  B.C. 

I'his  amount  of  space  has  been  given  to  Niagara 
Falls,  not  because  it  is  the  only,  or  indeed,  the  most 
important  chrop.ometer  of  the  period,  but  largely  be- 
cause it  is  the  most  spectacular  timekeeper,  and  the 
ore  with  which  the  public  is  most  familiar.  The 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  at  ^linneapolis,  Minnesota,  are 
equally  important  and  interesting.  Here,  too,  under 
the  prolonged  and  careful  study  of  Professor  N.  H. 
Winchell,  similar  results  have  been  attained.  The 
post-glacial  gorge  below  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony 
requires  only  seven  thousand  years  for  its  erosion  by 
the  forces  which  are  known  to  have  been  in  action 
during  the  past  two  hundred  }ears.    Numerous  other 


l8o  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

post-glacial  Avatcrfalls  might  be  cited  from  which 
approximately  the  same  results  are  obtainable. 

(2)  Calculations  from  the  enlargement  of  post- 
glacial river  valleys  yield  similar  results.  In  thou- 
sands of  places  over  the  glaciated  areas  streams  are 
flowing  in  channels  w^holly  composed  of  unconsoli- 
dated glacial  debris.  In  all  these  cases  the  streams 
are  enlarging  their  valleys  by  methods  that  are  open 
to  observation.  At  first  their  channels  were  no  wider 
than  the  current  of  the  streams.  But  as  time  went 
on  the  sides  were  undermined  and  made  to  fall  down, 
when  the  material  was  carried  away  by  the  current 
and  so  the  trough  was  enlarged  and  a  flood  plain 
formed.  This  enlargement  of  the  trough  and  increase 
of  the  flood  plain  have  gone  on  from  the  inception  of 
the  stream  to  the  present  time.  If  only  we  can  get  a 
reliable  estimate  of  the  rate  at  which  the  enlargement 
proceeds,  it  will  be  easy  to  get  an  equally  reliable 
estimate  of  the  time  required  to  produce  the  enlarge- 
ment now  apparent. 

Professor  Hicks,^  of  Granville,  Ohio,  made  some 
most  valuable  and  instructive  calculations  based  on 
observations  on  the  post-glacial  valley  of  Raccoon 
Creek,  Licking  County,  Ohio,  near  the  glacial  bor- 
der. Estimates  from  that  latitude,  three  or  four  de- 
grees   further   south   than    Niagara,   would    of   course 


S'lf^nificducr    of    flir    Glacial    Epnrh  i8l 

carry  us  back  to  a  much  earlier  time  than  the  begin- 
niiiiZ  of  the  Niagara  epoch.  The  glacial  terraces  of 
gravel  which  border  this  small  stream  are  fifty  feet 
in  height  and  the  width  of  the  trough  eroded  since 
their  deposition  is  easily  obtainable,  so  that  the  num- 
ber of  cubic  yards  of  gravel  which  have  been  removed 
by  the  stream  along  a  definite  length  can  be  accur- 
ately determined.  But  it  was  not  so  easy  to  obtain 
a  rate  of  removal. 

It  has  been  found,  however,  from  the  observations 
of  Humphreys  and  Abbott  that  every  2,610  cubic 
feet  of  flowing  water  in  the  Mississippi  River,  trans- 
ports to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  one  cubic  foot  of  silt. 
Knowing  the  si/e  of  the  drainage  basin  of  Raccoon 
Creek,  and  the  amount  of  rainfall,  and  making  the 
proper  reduction  for  the  evaporation,  we  can  read- 
ily get  the  amount  of  water  which  annually  flows  off 
through  the  bed  of  the  creek.  Estimating  the  silt  at 
the  rate  found  in  the  Mississippi  and  making  that 
the  divisor,  it  was  found  that  even  at  that  rate  of 
erosion  Raccoon  Creek  could  not  have  been  at  w^ork 
enlarging  its  trough  for  more  than  fifteen  thousand 
years.  The  probability,  however,  is  that  the  rate  at 
which  Raccoon  Creek  has  been  at  work  is  much  more 
rapid  than  that  of  the  Mississippi;  for  the  gradient 
of  the  great  river  is  only  a  few  inches  per  mile,  while 


1 82  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

that  of  the  creek  is  several  feet  per  mile,  making  its 
current  immensely  more  effective  as  an  eroding  agent. 
About  the  sam.e  time  I  made  estimates  from  data 
derived  in  a  similar  manner  from  the  post-glacial  val- 
ley of  Plum  Creek,  a  small  stream  running  through 
the  village  of  Oberlin,  in  Northern  Ohio,  and  with 
similar  results.^"  During  the  last  few  years,  however, 
there  has  been  offered  a  much  more  reliable  opportu- 
nity for  calculations  upon  the  valley  of  this  stream 
through  the  turning  of  its  course  incident  to  the  con- 
struction of  a  reservoir  in  the  village.  This  has  per- 
mitted definite  estimates  of  the  rate  of  erosion  in  the 
cut-off  during  twelve  years.  As  the  result  of  these 
observations  and  measurements  it  appears  that  from 
the  new  channel,  five  hundred  feet  long,  the  stream 
has  removed  8,450  feet  of  solid  material  annually; 
while  measurements  of  a  section  of  the  trough  a 
little  below,  where  there  has  been  no  interference  by 
artificial  means,  show  that  through  a  length  of  five 
thousand  feet,  the  total  amount  removed  by  the 
stream  since  it  began  to  flow,  upon  the  retreat  of  the 
ice,  is  34,000,000  cubic  feet.  The  length  of  the  bank 
through  this  section  exposed  at  the  present  time  to 
the  direct  impact  of  the  current  of  the  stream  as  it 
meanders  from  one  side  of  the  flood  plain  to  the 
other,     is    sixteen     hundred     feet.      Throughout    this 


Sisrni/icancr    of    the    Gldcial    /'.pocli  18,^ 

leiiijth  the  action  of  the  stream  is  essentially  under 
the  same  conditions  as  in  the  cut-off.  As  in  the  cut- 
off there  is  one  thousand  feet  of  bank  exposed,  the 
exposure  in  tlic  section  of  the  main  trouiz;h  under 
consideration  is  sixteen-tenths  as  ^reat,  hence  at  the 
same  rate  the  stream  is  removing;  from  this  section 
13,568  cubic  feet  annuallw  At  this  rate  the  pres- 
ent stream  would  produce  the  trough  in  2,505  years. 
Hut,  doubtless  the  present  rate  is  excessive  on  ac- 
count of  the  removal  by  civilization  of  certain  well- 
known  retarding  influences,  the  chief  of  which  is  the 
former  existence  of  a  dense  covering  of  forest.  This 
retarding  element,  however,  can  scarcely  have  been 
sufficient  to  increase  the  time  more  than  tenfold  ;  for 
the  obstructions  to  the  current  by  fallen  timber  were 
only  temporary,  and  even  they  would  set  in  motion 
eddies  and  counter  currents  that  would  be  effective 
in  considerable  degree,  and  after  a  few  decades  the 
fallen  timbers  would  decay,  so  that  if  a  period  of  a 
few  hundred  years  is  taken  into  view  the  movement 
of  the  stream  would  be  closely  analogous  to  that  at 
the  present  time.  It  would  seem  impossible,  there- 
fore, for  any  one  conversant  with  the  conditions  to 
assign  more  than  25,000  years  to  the  period  (which 
implies  a  rate  only  one-tenth  that  of  the  present), 
even  at  the  present  proportion  of  the  exposure  of  the 


184  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

I 
bank  to  the  direct  action  of  the  stream.  But,  when 
the  creek  first  began  its  work  there  was  no  forest  to 
retard  its  activity,  and  it  was  then  at  work  on  both 
sides  of  the  trough  as  in  the  cut-off  now.  The  aver- 
age proportion  of  the  bank  exposed  to  the  direct 
action  of  the  stream  would  therefore  be  twice  vv^hat 
it  is  now.  The  result,  therefore,  is  that  our  first 
quotient  must  be  divided  by  two,  which  gives  12,500 
years  as  the  extreme  limit,  and  that  to  be  consider- 
ably reduced  by  the  increased  activity  at  the  outset 
owing  to  the  freshly  uncovered  surface  of  the  coun- 
try, and  to  the  increased  precipitation  while  the  front 
of  the  retreating  ice  w^as  in  the  vicinity.  The  fact  is 
that  a  period  of  twelve  thousand  years  is  more  than 
can  be  reasonably  allowed  for  the  post-glacial  erosion 
of  Plum  Creek.  Even  ten  thousand  years  is  a  severe 
strain  upon  the  credulity  of  any  one  who  is  familiar 
with  the  facts.  But  the  date  of  the  withdrawal  of 
the  ice  from  Northern  Ohio  is  considerably  earlier 
rlian  that  of  its  withdrawal  from  Central  New  York, 
which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  erosion  of  the 
Niagara   gorge. 

At  this  point,  it  will  be  profitable  to  consider  the 
evidence  bearing  on  the  rate  at  which  the  ice  with- 
drew   upon    its   final    retreat.      For    it    is    from    some 


Sii^nificancc    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  1 85 

facts  connected  with  this  that  attempts  are  made  to 
prolong  the  time  required  for  the  production  of  the 
Niagara  gorge. 

It  is  well  known  that  upon  the  melting  of  the  ice 
from  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  of  the  Red 
River  of  the  North,  the  land  over  those  areas  was 
depressed  below  its  present  level,  and  that  this  de- 
pression increased  in  a  northerly  direction.  In  the 
Champlain  Valley  it  was  but  three  hundred  or  four 
hundred  feet,  while  at  Montreal  it  was  six  hundred 
feet,  as  evidenced  by  terraces,  and  the  skeletons  of 
whales  and  other  aquatic  animals,  in  the  post-glacial 
deposits  of  the  region.    These  facts  are  beyond  question. 

An  irresistible  inference  from  this  is,  that,  for  a 
time  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  ice  from  Canada, 
the  drainage  which  now  passes  over  Niagara  Falls, 
was  diverted  into  the  Ottawa  River.  For,  at  North 
Bay,  on  the  water  parting  between  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Ottawa  the  elevation  is  less  than  one  hun- 
dred feet  above  that  of  the  head  of  Niagara  River. 
While,  therefore,  the  land  to  the  north  was  depressed 
to  that  extent  the  water  of  the  lakes  \\'ould  be  di- 
verted in  that  direction  and  little  work  would  he  done 
in  the  Niagara  gorge.  The  date  of  that  gorge,  must, 
therefore,  he  extended  to  take  in  this  period  of  di- 
verted drainage. 


1 86  Ori}^in  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

But  these  facts  have  not  been  overlooked  in  our 
general  calculations.^^  Indeed,  as  long  ago  as  1892,  1 
was  the  first  to  discover  and  report  definite  evidence 
of  this  diversion  of  drainage  across  from  Lake  Hu- 
ron at  North  Bay  into  and  through  the  Mattawa  River 
to  the  Ottaw^a  at  Mattawan.  But  from  the  condition 
of  the  immense  delta  formed  at  the  junction  of  the 
streams,  it  was  apparent  that  two  or  three  thousand 
years  was  ample  time  to  allow  for  the  continuance  of 
this  drainage  line,  so  that  there  is  no  occasion  greatly 
to  enlarge  our  estimate  of  the  age  of  Niagara  on  this 
account. 

Moreover,  as  the  continuance  of  this  diversion  of 
the  drainage  was  dependent  upon  the  continuance  of 
the  northerly  depression  it  would  seem  possible  to 
obtain  from  this  source  evidence  of  the  duration  of 
the  diversion  of  the  water  from  Niagara  to  the  Ot- 
tawa. The  absolute  amount  of  this  post-glacial  eleva- 
tion has  been,  as  already  remarked,  six  hundred  feet 
in  the  latitude  of  Montreal,  and  one  thousand  feet 
farther  north  and  east.  At  the  southern  end  of  Hudson 
Bay  it  was  several  hundred  feet.  From  the  fact  that  the 
depression  of  land  was  evidently  greatest  towards  the 
main  centers  where  the  glacial  ice  accumulated,  it  has 
been  regarded  as  a  reasonable  supposition  that  the 
weight  of  the  ice  has  had  something  to  do  with  caus- 


Sii^'/ii/icd/iiC    of    fill'    Clacial    /■Ipocli  187 

itiiz  the  depression,  and  its  removal  with  effecting  the 
reelevation.  If  this  were  indeed  a  real  cause,  it  would 
be  natural  that  the  elevation  would  proceed  with 
greatest  rapidity  immediately  after  the  ice  had  melted 
a\\ay  from  the  depressed  area. 

Even  now  this  reelevation  is  going  on  at  a  slow 
rate.  Mr.  Gilbert,^-  of  the  United  States  Geolog- 
ical Survey  estimates  that  the  rate  of  elevation  is 
about  six  inches  a  century  faster  at  the  head  of  Ni- 
ngara  River  than  at  the  head  of  the  Chicago  Drainage 
Canal,  so  that  after  3,500  years  the  whole  drainage 
will  be  diverted  from  Niagara  and  turned  into  the 
Mississippi  basin,  through  the  Illinois  River.  But 
Dr.  Warren  Upham,  who  for  many  years  was  en- 
gaged by  the  state  of  Minnesota,  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  and  that  of  Canada,  in  surveying 
the  valley  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  has  ad- 
duced most  convincing  evidence  that  upon  the  removal 
of  the  ice  the  rise  of  the  land  to  the  northward  w^as 
much  more  rapid  than  this. 

The  Red  River  rises  in  Lake  Traverse,  in  Minne- 
Fotn,  at  an  elevation  of  one  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea.  After  flowing  north  for  several  hundred  miles 
it  empties  into  Lake  Winnipeg,  whose  waters  find 
their  way  to  Hudson  Bay  through  Nelson  River.  As 
already  noted  the  ice  obstruction  extending  across  this 


1 88  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

valley  at  the  north  produced  a  vast  temporar\'  lake, 
which  was  held  up  to  the  level  of  the  lowest  pass  into 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  which  is  through  the  head- 
waters of  the  Red  River  in  Lake  Traverse  to  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  trough  in  Big  Stone  Lake,  the  source 
of  the  Minnesota  River,  which  joins  the  Mississippi 
between  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul.  The  evidence  of 
the  existence  of  this  outlet  is  as  clear  as  day,  the 
gravel  terraces  marking  the  height  of  the  stream, 
eighty-five  feet  above  the  level  of  the  lakes,  being 
plainly  marked  at  the  present  time.  The  temporar}^ 
body  of  water  held  up  by  this  ice  obstruction  and 
having  its  outlet  through  the  channel  described  has 
been  named  Lake  Agassiz,  and  during  its  largest  ex- 
tension, just  before  the  ice  barriers  to  the  north  broke 
away,  covered  an  area  of  not  less  than  100,000  square 
miles.  It  is  the  sediment  in  this  vast  lake  that  fur- 
nishes the  soil  of  the  most  important  wheat-producing 
center  of  America,  if  not  of  the  w^orld. 

It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Mr.  Upham  ^'^  to  survey  the 
shores  of  this  great  lake,  which  are  marked  by  a  line 
of  gravel  ridges  a  few  feet  high  thrown  up  by  the 
waves  during  its  continuance.  Near  its  south  end 
there  arc  also  areas  of  dune  sand  which  was  blown 
outward  from  the  high-water  accumulations  during 
storms   and    piled    up   into   gentle   knolls   and    ridges. 


S'lc^niftcance    of    the    Glacial    Epoch  i  Hq 

Furthermore,  at  various  places  streams  of  greater  or 
less  size  pour  into  the  valley  from  the  higher  land 
on  either  side,  especially  from  the  west.  Among  these 
are  the  Saskatchewan,  the  Assiniboine,  the  Qu'Ap- 
pelle,  the  Souris,  the  Pembina,  and  the  Sheyenne. 
Those  streams  now  enter  the  Red  River  itself,  but 
during  the  existence  of  Lake  Agassiz  they  terminated 
at  its  shores  and  deposited  deltas  at  those  elevations. 
These  remain  as  mute  but  irresistible  witnesses  to  the 
brevity  of  the  time  during  which  the  water  remained 
at  that  level.  The  small  extent  of  these  deltas  bears 
indubitable  evidence  to  the  fact  that  the  conditions 
under  which  they  were  formed  existed  only  a  few 
centuries.  The  small  size  of  the  lines  of  beach  gravel 
surrounding  the  basin  also  bears  testimony  in  a  gen- 
eral \\'ay  to  the  same  limitation  of  the  continuance  of 
the  lake  at  that  level. 

But,  more  definite  still,  is  the  witness  of  the  dunes 
near  the  south  end  of  the  enclosed  body  of  water. 
For,  these  are  analogous  in  their  origin  to  those 
which  border  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  In 
both  cases  we  have  a  vast  body  of  water  practically 
closed  at  the  south  end,  with  corresponding  erosion 
of  the  shores  by  the  waves,  and  transportation  of  the 
debris  to  the  head  of  the  basin  at  the  south  end,  and, 
through  the  action  of  the  wind,  the  piling  up  of  the 


I  go  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

sand  in  dunes.  In  the  case  of  Lake  Michigan  the  ac- 
cumulation has  been  going  on  during  the  whole  time 
since  its  southern  end  was  freed  from  ice,  which  from 
various  estimates  can  be  shown  to  be  not  more  than 
ten  thousand  years.  Accepting  that  estimate,  the 
dunes  at  the  south  end  of  Lake  Agassiz  would  have 
been  accumulated  in  one  thousand  years,  for  they  are 
not  more  than  one-tenth  as  great  in  amount  as  those 
south  of  Lake  Michigan. 

Now,  these  shore  lines  around  Lake  Agassiz  rise 
as  you  go  north,  until  finally  they  are  three  or  four 
hundred  feet  higher  than  at  the  south  end.  All  this 
differential  elevation  must  have  taken  place  during  the 
lattei  part  of  the  retreat  of  the  ice  from  the  Cana- 
dian border  to  Hudson  Bay,  therefore,  in  a  period  of 
about  one  thousand  years. 

This  discovery  makes  it  certain  that  the  elevation 
of  the  col  at  North  Bay,  regulating  the  diversion 
of  the  water  from  Niagara,  need  not  have  occupied 
more  than  one  thousand  years  to  be  in  analogy  with 
the  rate  of  elevation  in  the  region  of  the  Red  River. 
There  is  no  ground,  therefore,  for  any  great  modi- 
fications of  the  date  assigned  to  the  Niagara  gorge 
from  calculations  made  from  the  present  rate  of  the 
recession  of  the  cataract. 

(3)   A  third  line  of  evidence  demonstrating  the  re- 


Si<rnific(i)ici'    of    the    Glac'uil    Epoch  191 

cency  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  is  derived  from  the  small 
extent  to  which  post-2;lacial  lakes,  ponds,  and  kettle 
holes  have  hcen  filled  up  and  ohliterated  since  their 
formation.  All  the  lakes,  both  large  and  small,  which 
are  so  numerous  in  the  northern  part  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  as  well  as  throughout  Ireland,  Scot- 
land, Nonvav,  Sweden,  Finland,  and  Northern  Russia, 
are  of  glacial  origin.  Either  they  are  in  old  river  basins 
which  have  been  dammed  by  abnormal  glacial  accu- 
mulations across  their  outlets,  or  they  are  in  smaller 
basins  which  were  formed  when  great  masses  of  ice 
melte.l  away  and  left  hollows  surrounded  by  glacial 
debris.  Technically  these  are  called  kettle  holes, 
from  their  resemblance  in  shape  to  the  potash  kettles 
that  were  in  common  use  when  the  country  districts 
of  America  were  first  settled,  and  until  the  forests 
had  been  removed. 

The  number  and  freshness  of  these  bodies  of  water 
in  the  glaciated  region  have  attracted  the  attention  of 
glacialists  from  the  beginning  of  observations  upon 
them.  It  is  evident  at  a  glance  that  two  powerful 
and  ever-active  forces  are  at  work  to  obliterate  these 
depressions.  First,  there  are  at  work  the  agencies 
which  tend  to  fill  them  with  solid  matter  of  various 
kmds.  The  rains  wash  down  the  soil  from  the  sides 
of  the  basins  and  deposit  it  over  the  bottom;  m  the 


1 92  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

larger  bodies  of  water,  the  waves  erode  the  shores 
and  distribute  the  material  far  and  wide,  —  while 
streams  bring  in  material  gathered  from  the  whole 
drainage  basin  and  add  it  to  the  sediment  that  comes 
from  nearer  localities;  and  in  the  smaller  basins,  peat 
accumulates  often  with  great  rapidity  and  transforms 
the  lakelet  into  morass  or  quagmire. 

At  the  same  time  that  this  process  of  sedimentation 
is  going  on.  the  stream  of  w\ater  carrying  off  the  sur- 
plus drainage  is  engaged  in  lowering  the  outlet  and 
thus  reducing  the  size  of  the  enclosed  body  of  w^ater. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  one  who  gives  attention  to 
these  facts  not  to  be  impressed  w^ith  the  youth  of  the 
whole  topography  of  these  lake  districts,  both  in  Eu- 
rope and  America.  The  lakes  exist  because  the  coun- 
try is  young.  Since  their  formation  there  has  not 
been  time  enough  for  their  outlets  to  drain  them  or 
for  the  winds  and  rains  and  waves  to  fill  them  with 
sediment,  even  with  the  aid  of  peat-forming  vegeta- 
tion. No  one  has  been  able  to  find  a  flaw  in  the 
calculations  made  in  the  early  period  of  glacial  inves- 
tigations concerning  the  age  of  certain  typical  kettle 
holes  in  Andovcr,  Massachusetts.^* 

Upon  measuring  one  of  these  typical  enclosed  ba- 
sins It  was  found  that  the  enclosure  was  a  rim  of 
gravel,  the   highest  part  of  which  was  seventy-seven 


Sigfii,fii(inci'    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  193 

feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  enclosure.  The  average 
height  of  the  rim  above  the  present  bottom  of  the  de- 
pression was  fifty  feet.  Tlie  width  of  the  basin  at  the 
upper  rim  was  372  feet.  The  slope  of  the  sides  was 
such  that  they  would  meet  at  seventeen  feet  below  the 
present  bottom.  From  the  nature  of  the  material,  it 
is  impossible  for  the  sides  ever  to  have  met  much 
deeper  down.  A  calculation  will  show  that  the  total 
amount  deposited  in  the  bottom  of  this  kettle  hole, 
by  wind,  water,  and  vegetable  growth,  is  equal  to  only 
eight  feet  in  thickness  over  the  present  bottom.  If 
we  bring  the  date  of  the  formation  of  the  basin  down 
to  12,500  years,  we  allow  125  years  for  the  accumu- 
lation of  one  inch  of  sediment,  which  is  about  as  far 
as  credulity  can  go.  More  recently  (1908),  Baron 
de  Geer,^^  of  Sweden,  has  reported  observations  on 
a  post-glacial  lake  bed  in  Sweden,  from  which  he 
reaches  the  conclusion  that  the  ice  did  not  retire  from 
that  region  until  about  five  thousand  years  ago. 

(4)  Another  striking  indication  that  the  retreat  of 
the  ice  from  the  main  centers  of  accumulation  oc- 
curred ver>'  recently,  is  found  in  the  small  amount  of 
subaerial  disintegration  of  glaciated  rock  surfaces, 
which  has  taken  place  since  exposure  upon  the  re- 
treat of  the  ice.  Every'where  this  has  been  noticed 
on  glaciated  surfaces  upon  which  bowlders  are  rest- 


194  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

fng.  In  the  places  protected  by  the  superincumbent 
bowlders  the  original  glaciated  surface  is  preserved, 
but  in  all  the  surrounding  area  the  surface  has  been 
lowered  by  subacrial  disintegration,  so  that  the  bowl- 
ders stand  upon  slight  pedestals.  These  are  even- 
where  so  low,  especially  in  limestone  districts,  that  a 
maximum  date  of  a  few  thousand  j'ears  must  be  as- 
signed to  withdrawal  of  the  glacial  ice. 

More  striking  still  are  the  facts  reported  by  Pro- 
fessor Geo.  F.  Becker,  and  the  late  Professor  I.  C. 
Russell,  two  of  the  most  careful  members  of  the? 
United  States  Geological  Survey.  Mr.  Becker  saj's, 
"  No  one  who  has  examined  the  glaciated  regions  of 
the  Sierra  [in  California]  can  doubt  that  the  great 
mass  of  the  ice  disappeared  at  a  very  recent  period. 
The  immense  areas  of  polished  surfaces  fully  exposed 
to  the  severe  climate  of  say  from  7,000  to  12,000  feet 
altitude,  the  insensible  erosion  of  streams  running  over 
glaciated  rocks,  and  the  freshness  of  erratic  bowlders 
are  sufficient  evidence  of  this."  ^'^  In  similar  strain 
Professor  Russell,  speaking  of  the  region  farther 
north,  in  Nevada  and  Utah,  remarks  that  "  The 
smooth  surfaces  are  all  scored  with  fine,  hair-like  lines, 
and  the  e>e  fails  to  detect  more  than  a  trace  of  dis- 
integration that  has  taken  place  since  the  surfaces 
received  their  polish  and  striation.  ...  It  seems  rea- 


Sif^nificancc   of  the    Glacial   Epoch  195 

sonablc  to  conclude  that  in  a  severe  climate  like  that 
of  the  hiirh  Sierra,  it  (the  polish)  could  not  remain  un- 
impaired for  more  than  a  few  centuries  at  the  most."  '" 
Sir   William    Logan    and    Dr.    Robert    BelP"    of    the 

Canadian  Geological  Survey  report  many  similar  in- 
stances. 

The  combined  effect  of  all  this  evidence  from  so 
many  different  sources  is  irresistible.  Large  areas  in 
Europe  and  North  America  which  are  now  principal 
centers  of  civilization  were  buried  under  glacial  ice 
thousands  of  feet  thick,  while  the  civilization  of 
Babylonia  was  in  its  heyday.  The  glib  manner  in 
which  many,  not  to  say  most,  popular  writers,  as  well 
as  many  observers  of  limited  range,  speak  of  the  Gla- 
cial epoch  as  far  distant  in  geological  time,  is  due  to 
ignorance  of  facts  which  would  seem  to  be  so  clear 
that  he  who  runs  might  read  them. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  human  race  had 
spread  all  over  the  Northern  Hemisphere  before  the 
close  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  it  is  important  to  consider 
the  probable  length  of  the  whole  period  and  the  vi- 
cissitudes connected  with  it.  For  it  would  seem  that 
both  man  and  a  number  of  extinct  animal  species 
must  have  passed  from  Asia  to  America  during  the 
continuance  of   land   elevation  connected  with  the  ac- 


196  Origin  find  Antiquity  of  Man 

cumulation  of  the  continental  ice  sheets.  It  seems 
impossible  to  account  for  the  spread  of  the  mastodon 
and  mammoth  from  Northern  Asia  into  North  Amer- 
ica, except  on  the  theory  that  it  took  place  Vvhile 
there  was  an  extensive  land  connection  between  the 
two  continents  over  the  area  now^  occupied  by  the 
shallow  water  of  Behring  Sea.  We  shall  find  it 
profitable,  therefore,  to  enter  somewhat  in  detail  into 
the  general  question  of  the  time  necessary  to  account 
for  the  entire  accumulation  of  glacial  ice,  together 
with  the  various  interglacial  epochs  that  are  supposed 
to  have  existed. 

We  are  so  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  causes  which 
produced  the  Glacial  epoch  that  great  freedom  of 
speculation  is  allowable,  and  at  the  same  time  spec- 
ulative conclusions  of  any  sort  can  have  little  weight 
in  overcoming  the  witness  of  actual  observations 
bearing  upon  glacial  dates.  If,  as  we  are  inclined,  and 
have  much  evidence  to  believe,  the  Glacial  epoch  was 
brought  on  by  the  elevation  of  land  known  to  have 
occurred  during  the  latter  part  of  the  Tertiary  period 
and  by  consequent  changes  in  the  course  of  the  oceanic 
currents  which  do  so  much  to  distribute  the  excessive 
heat  received  from  the  sun  over  the  tropics,  the  com- 
ing on  of  tlie  Glacial  epoch  would  naturally  have 
been    vcrv    gradual.      But    when    the    climax    of    the 


Siiinifuancc    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  197 

period  approached,  it  is  easilj'  shown  that  forces  of 
izreat  relative  activity  would  be  set  in  motion.  The 
rapidity  with  which  the  ice  may  have  accumulated, 
and  that  also  with  which  it  may  have  been  melted, 
can  be  inferred  both  theoretically  and  from  actual 
observation. 

The  beginning  of  the  Glacial  epoch  was  not  so  far 
distant  as  is  popularly  supposed.  The  whole  epoch 
was  one  in  which  forces  were  at  work  at  an  abnormal 
rate,  while  it  is  estimated  that  even  now  the  ice  float- 
ing away  from  Greenland  as  icebergs  is  sufficient,  if 
accumulated  on  a  land  surface,  to  extend  the  borders  of 
a  continental  glacier  about  450  feet  a  year,  or  one  mile 
in  twelve  years,  one  hundred  miles  in  twelve  hundred 
years,  and  seven  hundred  miles  (about  the  limit  of 
transportation  of  bowlders  in  America),  in  less  than 
ten  thousand  years.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  so  eminent  an  authority  as  Sir  Joseph  Prest- 
wich  ^■'  should  conclude  that  25,000  years  is  ample 
time  to  allow  to  the  reign  of  the  ice  of  the  Glacial 
epoch.  Certainly  there  is  no  need  to  enlarge  this 
estim.ate  more  than   two-  or  threefold. 

This  will  be  evident  if  one  will  reflect  upon  the 
enormous  forces  temporarily  brought  into  play  during 
the  epoch. 

The  movements  of  the  earth's  crust  are  even  now 


198  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

considerable  in  extent,  amounting  in  many  places  to 
two  or  three  feet  a  century.  But  at  the  culmination 
of  the  Glacial  epoch  several  million  cubic  miles  of 
ice  had  accumulated  over  the  glaciated  area  in  North 
America  and  Europe.  This  is  probably  sufficient 
greatly  to  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  forces  which  pre- 
serves the  present  land  levels.  With  the  weight  of 
several  million  cubic  miles  of  water  removed  from 
the  ocean  beds  and  the  same  amount  set  down  in  ice 
over  a  definite  area  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  the 
land  would  naturally  sink  with  a  rapidity  which  is 
out  of  all  analogy  to  present  changes  in  level.  When, 
later,  this  ice  melted  and  returned  to  the  ocean  these 
forces  would  again  be  liberated  to  reverse  the  process 
and  cause  an  elevation  whose  rate  would  naturally 
exceed  anything  which  comes  under  present  observa- 
tion. Moreover,  the  floods  consequent  upon  this  rapid 
melting  of  the  ice  would  hasten  the  work  of  stream 
erosion  to  a  degree  that  is  almost  incomprehensible. 
With  an  annual  rise  of  two  hundred  feet  in  the  Mis- 
souri and  Minnesota  rivers,  and  perhaps  of  five  hun- 
dred feet  in  the  Ohio,  the  results  both  in  erosion  and 
in   deposition   may  well  beggar  description. 

Theoretically  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  at  all  im- 
probable that,  when  the  Glacial  epoch  had  fnirly  set 
in,    ice   bc<;an   to   accumulate   over   the   center   of   the 


Si'^nif'udncc    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  199 

illaciated   area  at  the   rate  of  one   foot  a  year.     THh 
need    not    necessitate    an    increase    of    precipitation    to 
that    amount,     hut    merely    that    twelve    or    fourteen 
inches  of  the  precipitation  w  h.ich  had  heen  in  the  form 
of  rain  was  now  in  the  form  of  snow.     In  (ireenland 
It  would  seem  now  that  the  entire  precipitation  over 
the  most  of  the  interior  is  in  the  form  of  snow.     At 
the  same  time  it  is  well  known  that  there  is  a  con- 
siderahle    amount    of    direct    condensation    of    frozen 
moisture  upon  the  surface  of  the  [glacier.     If  now  we 
suppose  the  accumulation  of  ice  on  the  surface  of  the 
incipient  continental  glacier  to  have  been  at  the   rate 
of  one  foot  a  year,   it  would   require,   in   round  num- 
bers, only  ilve  thousand  years  for  it  to  reach  a  thick- 
ness of  one  mile.      Supposing  this  to  have  been   over 
an   area   of    500,000  square  miles    (about   the   present 
area  of  the  Greenland  ice  field)    the  simple  overflow 
of  ice  from  this  area  would  extend  the  border  so  that 
in  another  five  thousand  years   1,000,000  square  miles 
would    be   covered,    to   say  nothing  of   the   snow   that 
would  accumulate  directly  over  this  added  area.      By 
the  same  process   during   another  five  thousand   years 
the  margin  would  be  so  extended  that  2,000,000  miles 
would  be  co\ered  with  glacial  ice.     We  have  to  con- 
ceive the  process  as  continued  only  another  five  thou- 
sand   years   (amounting    in    all     to    twentv    thousand 


200  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

3Tars)  to  have  the  glaciers  reach  their  full  extent 
during  the  Glacial  epoch  in  North  America.  Esti- 
mating the  deflation  of  the  ice  and  the  retreat  of  the 
ice  border  to  have  gone  on  at  a  corresponding  rate 
during  the  decline  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  we  should 
have  40,000  years  as  sufficient  to  cover  the  entire 
epoch.  But  as  evidently  there  were  various  episodes 
of  temporary  advance  and  recession,  this  estimate  of 
time  must  be  considerably  enlarged.  If,  however,  we 
double  each  half  of  the  epoch  to  allow  for  intergla- 
cial  episodes,  which  would  seem  to  be  ample,  this 
would  extend  the  epoch  only  to  80,000  years. 

That  this  estimate  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
forces  causing  both  the  accumulation  and  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  ice  of  the  Glacial  epoch  is  not 
excessive  is  shown  by  a  variety  of  observations  upon 
existing  ice  fields  and  upon  the  permanent  glacial  de- 
posits that  were  left  behind. 

The  icebergs  which  float  down  through  Baffin's 
Bay  and  are  dissolved  on  meeting  the  warm  currents 
of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  represent  the  surplus  ice  of  the 
great  Greenland  ice  sheet,  whose  motion  has  been 
aptly  compared  by  Helland  to  that  of  an  inundation. 
From  this  great  ice  field  there  is  a  general  movement 
from  the  central  regions  towards  the  sea.  The  move- 
ment   concentrates    in    the    ice    fiords,    through    which 


Si^ni/icdficc    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  201 

individual  glaciers  are  constantly  pushing  out  to  the 
deep  sea,  where  their  fronts  are  hroken  off  and  swept 
away  by  the  southward  flowing  current. 

These  glaciers  are  of  immense  size,  many  of  them 
two  or  three  miles  in  width,  and  one,  the  great 
Humboldt  Glacier,  more  than  sixty  miles;  while 
their  velocity  has  been  found  to  average  between 
thirty  and  fifty  feet  a  day  throughout  the  year.  The 
great  glacier  near  Upernavik  moves  at  the  rate  of 
ninetj'-nine  feet  per  day.  Taking  the  average  move- 
ment (determined  by  the  Danish  surveyors  as  from 
thirty  to  fifty  feet),  and  estimating  the  proportion  of 
glacier  front  to  rock  front  on  the  coast  of  Greenland 
to  be  as  one  to  twenty,  it  would  appear  that  the  ice 
carried  off  by  these  glaciers  annually  would  amount 
to  a  fringe  of  one-eighth  of  a  mile  along  the  entire 
coast;  that  is  to  say,  if  it  were  not  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  icebergs  away  from  the  front  of  the  glaciers, 
the  border  of  the  Greenland  ice  field  would  extend 
itself  one  mile  every  eight  years.  At  the  same  rate, 
were  the  continent  unobstructed  by  Baffin's  Bay,  the 
ice  would  extend  five  hundred  miles  in  four  thousand 
years;  or,  if  we  suppose  the  ratio  of  ice  front  to  rock 
front  to  be  as  one  to  thirty,  the  ice  front  would  then 
extend  itself  five  hundred  miles  in  six  thousand  years. 
•In   the  case   of   Muir   Glacier   in   Alaska,   we   have 


o 


204  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

positive  evidence  of  an  actual  rapiditj'  in  the  retreat 
of  a  great  glacier  which  is  of  the  first  importance. 
When  I  made  my  survey  of  the  glacier  in  1886  evi- 
dence was  gathered  proving  that  the  front  of  the 
glacier  had  retreated  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  during 
the  last  century.-^'  Every  observation  since  by  other 
investigators  has,  from  general  considerations,  con- 
firmed this  conclusion."^  Since  1886,  however,  this 
rapid  retreat  of  the  ice  front  is  positively  known  to 
have  continued,  until,  in  1906  (after  a  lapse  of  twenty 
5Tars),  it  was  seven  miles  farther  inland  than  it  was  in 
1886.  During  that  period  the  ice  front  has  actually 
retreated,  on  the  average,  at  a  rate  of  one  mile  every 
three  years. 

A  striking  impression  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  ice  disappears  is  seen  also  in  the  fact  that  upon  the 
mountain  slopes  which  border  Muir  Inlet,  clearly  de- 
fined and  vrell  preserved  glacial  striae  were  discov- 
ered at  an  elevation  of  thirty-seven  hundred  feet,  and 
running  parallel  with  the  axis  of  the  inlet,  while  Wil- 
loughby  Island,  which  rises  ten  or  fifteen  hundred 
feet  above  the  level  of  Glacier  Bay,  retains  the  polish 
of  glaciation  so  perfectly  that  it  glistens  in  the  sun 
like  a  mirror.  There  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  a 
hundred  years  ago  the  whole  inlet  and  the  upper  part 
of  Glacier  Bay  were  filled  with  the  glacier  from  two 


Si^i^mi,^('(inci'    of    tlu     Ghic'ud    Eporli  203 

to   four   thousand    feet   in    thickness  and   from   one   to 
five  miles  in  width. 

Evidence  concernini:  the  rapid  retreat  of  the  con- 
tinental ice  sheet  in  Isorth  America  is  also  abundant, 
and  has  already  been  sufficiently  presented  in  dis- 
cussing the  age  of  the  Niagara  gorge  and  the  time 
occupied  by  the  retreat  of  the  ice  front  from  the  Ca- 
nadian border  to  Hudson  Bay,  as  estimated  by  Dr. 
Warren  Upham.  The  ice  did  not  withdraw  from 
Central  New  York  and  the  Province  of  Quebec  un- 
til about  seven  thousand  years  ago.  The  entire  time 
occupied  by  the  retreat  of  the  ice  from  the  Canadian 
border  to  Hudson  Bay,  a  distance  of  five  hundred 
miles,  did  not  exceed  one  or  two  thousand  years  at 
the   utmost. 

As  many  extravagant  but  vague  estimates  concern- 
ing the  duration  of  the  Glacial  epoch  have  been  made 
from  the  evidence  of  several  interglacial  periods,  from 
the  relative  amount  of  erosion  which  has  taken  place 
in  the  older  deposits  near  the  border  of  the  glaciated 
area,  and  from  the  extent  of  the  oxidation  of  the  ma- 
terial in  the  glacial  deposits  near  the  border,  it  is 
necessary  here  to  consider  the  evidence  in  some  detail. 

There  have  been  three,  and  perhaps  four,  glacial 
advances  in  the  United  States  with  interglacial  peri- 
ods   between,    marked    by    buried    peat    deposits    and 


2o6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

overu  helmed  forests.  These  are  ( i )  the  Kansan 
(2)  the  IlHnoisan,  (3)  the  Wisconsin  episodes,  de- 
riving their  names  from  the  localities  where  the  de 
posits  can  be  most  easily  traced. 

I.  During  the  Kansan  stage  the  ice  ever^^vvhere 
attained  its  extreme  southern  extension,  reaching  To- 
peka,  in  Kansas,  covering  all  of  Missouri  north  of  the 
Missouri  River,  extending  to  the  southern  part  of 
Illinois  and  to  the  Ohio  River  at  Cincinnati.  Where 
the  deposits  of  this  age  are  exposed,  they  are  ver>^ 
thoroughly  oxidized,  and  are  spread  out  over  the 
country  in  a  comparatively  thin  and  uniform  stratum, 
without  the  occurrence  of  moraines.  The  Kansan 
deposits,  also,  show  the  effects  of  erosion  to  an  extent 
many  times  greater  than  that  of  those  in  the  area  at 
the  north  from  which  the  ice  last  retreated.  From 
these  facts  it  has  been  inferred  that  the  age  of  the 
Kansan  deposits  was  very  many  times  that  of  those  of 
the  Wisconsin  stage. 

But  it  should  be  observed  that  the  oxidation  of  the 
deposits  of  Kansan  age  was  probably  effected,  for  the 
most  part,  in  preglacial  times.  This  was  clearly 
brought  to  light  many  years  ago  in  a  paper  by  Pro- 
fessor Raphael  Pumpelly  --  and  has  since  been  em- 
phasized by  Professor  Ralph  S.  Tarr  -^  and  others. 
Previous  to  the  Glacial  epoch,  during  nearly  the  en- 


Sii^nificancc    of    the    Gldchil   EpocJi  lOJ 

tire  Tertian'  period,  a  warm,  muist  climate  cliarac- 
terized  the  Northern  Hemisphere  up  to  the  Arctic 
Sea.  The  rtora  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  and 
of  Japan  and  Central  F.urope  flourished  at  that  time 
in  Greenland  and  Spitzhergen.  During  the  con- 
tinuance of  these  conditions  the  rocks  of  the  entire 
reiiion  must  have  been  deeply  penetrated  by  oxidizing 
agencies,  so  that  the  whole  area  was  covered  with  a 
thick  blanket  of  residual  soil,  such  as  exists  at  the 
present  time  outside  of  the  glaciated  areas,  where,  as 
in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  for  example,  the  rocks 
are  often  decayed  to  a  depth  of  one  hundred  feet, 
and  in  the  Ozark  Mountains  of  Missouri  Professor 
Pumpelly  reports  that  the  limestone  rocks  have  been 
dissolved  to  such  an  extent  that,  though  the  residuary 
products  are  less  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  original  vol- 
ume, they  now  cover  the  country  to  a  depth  of  from 
twenty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet;  while,  in 
Nicaragua,  Thomas  Belt  reported  that  the  decay  of 
the  rocks  had  reached  a  depth  of  two  hundred  feet. 

Now  it  is  evident  that  the  first  grist  of  the  Glacial 
epoch  would  consist  of  this  already  oxidized  material 
which  covered  the  region  at  the  close  of  the  Ter- 
tiary period.  It  was  this  material  which  was  first 
picked  up  by  the  iilacial  movement  and  carried  to 
the  extreme  limit  of   the  continental   ice   field.      The 


208  Ori^rin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

excessive  oxidation  of  the  material  over  the  field  cov- 
ered by  the  Kansan  ice  is  therefore  no  clear  indication 
of  the  time  v/hich  has  elapsed  since  its  transportation. 
It  was  already  oxidized  when  it  started. 

Nor  is  the  relative  amount  of  erosion  of  the  Kansan 
deposits  a  clear  indication  of  their  age.  It  is  true  that 
this  erosion  is  many  times  in  excess  of  that  which  has 
taken  place  since  the  Wisconsin  stage,  but  it  is  also  true 
that  the  forces  in  operation  over  the  area  were  exces- 
sive. Every  stream  passing  through  the  area  of  Kan- 
san drift  has  been  surcharged  with  water  from  the 
melting  of  the  successive  receding  ice  sheets,  and  it 
is  well  known  that  the  eroding  power  of  a  stream  of 
water  is  many  fold  greater  when  the  supply  of  water 
is  superabundant  than  v^dien  it  is  at  an  ordinary  stage. 
Moreover,  the  absence  of  moraines  over  the  exposed 
Kansan  area  prevented  the  occurrence  of  those  nu- 
merous obstructions  to  the  drainage  which  exist  over 
those  portions  of  tlie  glaciated  area  from  which  the  ice 
receded  last.  This  same  line  of  argument  also  goes 
far  to  diminish  the  time  estimates  which  have  been 
made  concerning  the  interglacial  erosion  in  areas 
which  have  been  subsequently  covered  by  the  read- 
vancing  ice. 

2.  The  Illinoisan  Stage.  It  is  a  fact  whose  sig- 
nificance  is   not   fully   understood   that   the  center  of 


I  .   -^  .     — "^^T" ~    ..  ._  v ^ 


210  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

dispersion  of  ice  during  the  Kansan  stage  was  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  two  subsequent  stages.  The 
center  for  the  dispersion  of  Kansan  ice  was  some- 
where west  of  Hudson  Bay;  while  during  the  Illi- 
noisan  stage  the  center  of  dispersion  was  from  the 
vicinit}^  of  Labrador  and  southeast  of  Hudson  Bay. 
During  this  stage  bowlders  were  transported  from  the 
north  of  Lake  Huron  southwest  as  far  as  the  southern 
part  of  Iowa,  where  they  occur  overlying  the  Kansan 
deposits  north  of  Keokuk,  Iowa. 

The  extent  of  the  oxidation  of  the  exposed  Illi- 
noisan  drift  sheet  and  the  amount  of  erosion  wliich 
has  been  effected  in  it  since  its  deposition  are  both 
midway  in  amount  between  tliat  of  the  Kansas  depos- 
its and  that  of  the  Wisconsin  deposits.  But  tliis  is 
what  is  to  be  expected,  in  view  of  the  facts  just  pre- 
sented with  reference  to  the  preglacial  disintegration 
of  the  rocks  over  the  centers  from  which  the  ice 
moved.  The  material  accessible  to  the  moving  ice 
would  necessarily  be  less  and  less  oxidized  as  the  sur- 
face soil  was  more  completely  removed.* 

3.    The    Wisconsin     Stage.     The    deposits    of    the 

*  The  prc.jection  of  the  Illinoisan  deposits  beyond  the 
Wisconsin  are  relatively  so  slight,  that,  to  avoid  confusion, 
they  have  been  omitted  on  the  accompanying  map;  while 
the  lov^an  border,  which  Mr.  I.everett  is  now  inclined  to 
discard,    is   left   for  convenience   of   future   reference. 


Sisriiificcucc   of    ihc    Glacial   Epoch 


21  1 


Wisconsin  episode  consist  of  much  fresher  material 
than  those  of  the  earh'er  episodes,  showing  that  tJiey 
have  been  Iar.L2;eI\'  derived  from  the  unoxidized  strata 
which  had  been  left  exposed  by  the  removal  of  the 
residual  soil  during  the  earlier  stages  of  the  glacial 
advance.  But  there  is  over  the  entire  Wisconsin  area 
an  oxidized  stratum  extending  several  feet  from  the 
surface  downwards.  This  stratum  is  characterized  by 
a  yel-loM'ish  color,  and  rests  upon  a  much  thicker 
stratum  of  glacial  deposits  which  is  more  compact,  is 
unoxidized,  and  is  of  a  bluish  color.  Whether  this 
upper  stratum  has  been  oxidized  since  the  deposit 
was  made  is  a  question  of  dispute  among  geologists. 
The  more  probable  theor}^  seems  to  be  that  the  up- 
per, oxidized,  stratum  consists  of  material  which  was 
incorporated  into  the  moving  ice  and  gradually  ac- 
cum.ulated  upon  the  surface  as  the  ice  sheet  melted 
and  diminished 'in  thickness,  and  became  oxidized  in 
considerable  part  during  the  exposure  while  m  pro- 
cess of  transportation. 

The  deposits  of  the  Wisconsin  ice  overlie  tho^e 
both  of  the  Illinoisan  and  of  the  Kansan  stage,  ex- 
tending in  the  Ohio  Valley  very  nearly  to  the  border 
of  the  Kansan  boundary,  and  sometimes  beyond  it. 
It  was  durine  this  stage,  also,  that  the  great  lines  of 
moraines  that  are  traced  across  the  countrv  were  de- 


212  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

posited.  The  estimates  which  have  been  made  con- 
cerning the  date  of  the  Glacial  epoch  derived  from 
the  Niagara  gorge  and  the  other  facts  which  have 
been  already  detailed  refer  wholly  to  this  Wisconsin 
stage,  and  show  clearly  that  the  ice  of  that  epoch  did 
not  disappear  from  the  northern  part  of  the  United 
States  until  seven  thousand  years  ago. 

The  question  of  the  entire  length  of  the  Glacial 
epoch  depends  to  a  considerable  extent  upon  the-  time 
which  must  be  allowed  for  the  interglacial  epochs. 
That  these  were  of  considerable  length  appears  from 
the  fact  that  extensive  forest  beds  and  stores  of  peat 
are  found  between  the  deposits  of  these  various  stages 
spoken  of  and  of  various  minor  advances.  Doubtless 
some  centuries,  and  perhaps  many  centuries,  must 
have  elapsed  between  the  recession  of  the  ice  during 
these  episodes  and  its  readvancement  to  cover  the 
accumulations  of  vegetal  material  and  the  eroded 
surfaces  that  had  been  sculptured  during  the  inter- 
glacial exposure.  Whether  these  intervals  are  to  be 
measured  by  hundreds  of  years,  as  in  Alaska,  or  by 
thousands  of  years,  is  not  capable  in  many  cases  of 
demonstration.  Rut  nowhere  does  it  seem  necessary 
to  assume  intervals  expressed  by  a  higher  order  of 
fieures,  nam.ely  tens  of  thousands. 

The   clearest   evidence   of   a   prolonged  interglacial 


Siirni^icd/ice    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  213 

episode  appears  in  the  deposits  carefully  studied  at  To- 
ronto by  Professor  A.  P.  Coleman.  Here  on  the 
northern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario  there  are  two  series 
of  glacial  deposits,  one  overlying  the  other,  separated 
by  interglacial  deposits  representing  both  a  flora  and 
a  fauna  containing  species  that  even  now^  do  not  live 
in  that  latitude,  but  are  found  no  nearer  than  the 
Mississippi  Valley  and  the  upper  portion  of  the  val- 
ley of  the  Ohio.  Inhere  must  therefore  have  been  an 
interglacial  period  in  the  latitude  of  Toronto  long 
enough  and  warm  enough  to  permit  the  migration  of 
shell-fish  and  of  various  trees  and  plants  from  the 
Mississippi  Valley  into  Canada,  where  they  had  op- 
portunity to   flourish   for  a  considerable  period. 

When,  however,  we  attempt  to  estimate  this  time, 
we  are  confronted  by  various  paradoxes  of  the  Gla- 
cial epoch.  In  the  first  place.  It  Is  evident  that,  for 
the  Ice  to  have  melted  away  as  rapidly  as  it  did,  an 
unusually  warm  climate  was  necessary.  So  that  it 
seems  likely  that  extrem.es  of  climate  m.et  during  a 
considerable  time  when  the  summers  were  very  warm 
and  the  winters  very  cold.  This  supposition  is  sup- 
ported not  only  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  which 
requires  an  excessive  amount  of  warmth  to  melt  the 
Ice  back  as  fast  as  we  have  shown  that  It  did  In  the 
vallev  of  the    Red   River  of   the  North,   but  also  by 


214  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

discoveries  which  Professor  Hoist, ^"^  of  the  Swedish 
Geological  Survey,  has  made  in  the  glacial  deposits 
near  Malmo.  Here  he  has  found,  mingled  in  the 
same  lake  deposits,  species  both  of  plants  and  of  ani- 
mals which  are  ordinarily  characteristic  of  widely 
separated  latitudes.  But  during  the  close  of  the 
Glacial  epoch  in  Southern  Sweden  there  were  cli- 
matic conditions  such  that  all  could  flourish  in  the 
same  localit)^  While  it  may  not  be  permitted  to  sup- 
pose that  elms,  oaks,  maples,  and  pawpaws  flourished 
during  an  interglacial  epoch  at  Toronto  when  the 
edge  of  the  continental  ice  sheet  was  a  few  miles 
away,  it  is  not  at  all  beyond  the  realm  of  plausible 
supposition  that  the  ice  edge  was  not  more  than  fifty 
or  one  hundred  miles  away,  in  w^hich  case  two  or 
three  thousand  5^ears  may  be  ample  time  for  both 
the  retreat  and  the  readvance  of  the  ice.  Until  we 
know  more  about  the  causes  of  the  climatic  changes 
which  passed  over  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  and  in- 
deed over  the  whole  earth,  during  the  Glacial  epoch, 
it  is  impossible  for  us  to  form  any  very  definite  ideas 
concerning  the  rapidity  with  which  the  various  epi- 
sodes of  the  epoch  followed  each  other. 

The  moderate  estimates  concerning  the  date  of  the 
earliest  glacial  episode  are  amply  sustained,  and  we 
believe   demonstrated   to  be  correct,   bv  the  investio-a- 


Si<^nific(ince   of    the    Glacial   Epoch  215 

tions  of  Professor  K.  H.  Williams  -^  on  the  attenuated 
border   of   the    <j;laciated    area   of   the   state   of    Penn- 
sylvania.     This  border   extends  on   an   average   about 
twenty   miles   south   of    the    moraine    which   was   sur- 
veyed  in    1880  by   Lewis   and   Wright,   and   which   is 
reckoned    now   as   of   Wisconsin    age.      On   the   other 
hand,   the  attenuated  border,  as  noted  on  the  accom- 
panying map   (p.  209),  is  reckoned  as  of  Kansan  age. 
But    Professor   Williams    found    that    the   glaciated 
surface    of    the    mammoth    coal    bed    at    the    extreme 
southern    edge   of   the    border   was    remarkably    fresh. 
Though  covered  with  loose  debris  permitting  free  ac- 
cess  of   eroding   acids    it   was   not    eaten   into   to    any 
appreciable   extent,    whereas   south   of    the   border   the 
coal  was  oxidized  and  made  worthless  to  a  depth  of 
several    feet.      Again,    the   blanket   of   glacial   material 
covering    the    attenuated    bordsr,    though    in    general 
highly    oxidized,    contained    wherever    examined,    and 
that  was  in   hundreds  of  places,   a  small  intermixture 
of    rocky    fragments    w^hich    were    almost    unoxidized, 
though  of  a  kind  to  be  specially  subject  to  oxidation. 
Evidently    the    age   of   the   deposits   is   determined   by 
this   unoxidized    material    which    had    been    picked    up 
in    the    movement    and    brought    along    with    a    great 
mass    of    material    which,    as    before    said,    had    been 
alreadv  oxidized    from   the   start.      Furthermore,   Mr. 


2l6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Williams  found  numerous  rounded  pebbles  which  had 
been  oxidized  almost  to  the  center,  but  leaving  a 
core  of  unoxidized  material.  But  some  of  these  peb- 
bles had  been  glaciated  upon  one  side  so  as  almost  to 
expose  the  core  without  disturbing  the  deep  bands  of 
oxidation  on  the  other  side,  thus  demonstrating  that 
the  main  oxidation  of  the  pebbles  had  occurred  be- 
fore they  were  picked  up  in  their  original  beds  in 
the  far  north. 

These  facts  certainly  show  that  there  must  be  some 
flaw  in  the  calculations  which  give  an  extreme  age,  in 
some  cases  of  many  hundred  thousand  years,  to  the 
Kansan  deposits.  The  conditions  during  the  entire 
ice  age  were  abnormal  and  we  are  led  into  serious 
error  when  we  apply  to  them  the  measures  of  geo- 
logical time  draw^n  from  the  progress  of  events  char- 
acterizing the  more  stable  conditions  of  present  or 
preglacial   periods. 

It  was  formerly  maintained  on  Croll's  astronomical 
theory  that  the  glaciation  of  the  Southern  Hemis- 
phere was  not  contemporaneous  with  that  of  the 
Northern,  but  that  the  glacial  episodes  of  these  two 
hemispheres  followed  each  other  in  successive  alterna- 
tion, the  Northern  Hemisphere  experiencing  glacial 
conditions  while  the   Southern    Hemisphere  was  pass- 


Si'^nificdncc    of    the    Glacial   Epoch  ill 

inii;  through  a  period  of  milder  climate,  and  vice 
versa.  J^ut  recent  observations  show  that  the  g;la- 
ciation  of  the  two  hemispheres  was  contemporaneous. 
According  to  Professor  Isaiah  Bov.man,-''  who  has 
extensively  investigated  the  phenomena,  all  the  val- 
le3's  of  the  Andes  reaching  above  12,500  feet  were 
even  in  the  equatorial  latitudes  filled  with  glacial  ice 
at  a  comparatively  recent  time.  In  some  places  the 
glaciers,  as  for  example,  between  Ollantaytambo  and 
Torontoy,  descended  to  a  level  of  8,500  feet  above 
the  sea  and  deposited  moraines  four  hundred  feet  in 
height.  But  the  deposits  of  these  South  American 
glaciers  are  so  fresh  that  they  are  probably  to  be  cor- 
related with  those  of  the  Wisconsin  episodes  in  North 
America.  It  is  in  the  deposits  of  one  of  these  glaciers 
near  Cuzco  that  Professor  Hiram  Bingham  has 
found  human  remains,  details  of  which  will  be  given 
in  a  later  chapter. 

Thus,  though  we  may  not  be  able  to  extract  any 
very  definite  chronology  for  human  history  from  these 
glacial  facts,  they  do  enable  us  to  set  limits  to  spec- 
ulation upon  the  time  of  man's  entrance  into  the 
world,  and  they  give  us  a  vivid  idea  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes which  the  race  encountered  during  the  early 
centuries  of  its  history. 


2i8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

CHAPTER    VII 

MAN  IN  THE  GLACIAL  EPOCH 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  direct  evidence  of  man's 
existence  during  the  Glacial  epoch  has  been  limited 
(with  one  or  two  doubtful  exceptions)  to  the  occur- 
rence of  implements  and  remains  found  in  what  is 
called  modified  drift,  that  is,  deposits  made  by  the 
streams  of  water  which  everywhere  poured  out  in 
great  volume  from  the  margin  of  the  ice  fields  during 
the  decline  of  the  period.  In  America,  as  already 
pointed  out,  the  gravel  terraces  laid  down  by  these 
glacial  floods  form  bordering  terraces  to  all  the 
southerly  flowing  streams  which  rise  in  the  glaciated 
region.  So  uniform  and  characteristic  are  these  de- 
posits that  they  have  given  the  name  to  the  well- 
known  **  Terrace  epoch."  The  terraces  marking  this 
epoch  are  prominent  features  along  the  borders  of  the 
Connecticut,  the  Hudson,  the  Delaware,  the  Susque- 
hanna, the  Ohio  with  all  its  northern  tributaries,  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  Missouri  rivers.  That  they  are 
connected  with  the  closing  stages  of  the  Glacial  epoch, 
when  the  ice  was  melting  away  with  exceptional  ra- 
pidity, giving  rise  to  what  we  may  appropriately  call 


M(in   in   the   Gldc'uil  Epoch  219 

"  the  sprinii;  freshet  "  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  is  capable, 
as  already  said,  of  beinp;  proved  to  a  very  hi^ih  de'j:ree 
of  ccrtaintw  These  terraces  are  composed  of  material 
derived  from  the  far  north.  In  the  Ohio  River,  for 
example,  granitic  pebbles  form  a  large  constituent  of 
the  material  composing  them.  But  the  nearest  native' 
ejanite  rocks  lie  far  to  the  north  of  Lake  Erie  and 
Lake  Ontario.  In  every  case,  also,  the  terraces  can 
be  traced  from  the  south  up  to  the  glacial  boundar\^ 
—  the  material  increasing  in  coarseness  as  the  bound- 
ary is  approached,  where  the  water  deposits  at  last 
merge  into  the  unstratified  till,  or  bowlder  clay. 

The  evidence  of  man's  existence  during  this  "  Ter- 
race epoch  "  in  America  is  now  ample,  and,  owing  to 
the  simplicity  of  the  physical  conditions  of  the  con- 
tinent, capable  of  very  precise  determination.  The 
first  discoveries  were  reported  in  1875  by  Dr.  C.  C. 
Abbott  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The  geological  sit- 
uation is  here  very  simple.^  Trenton  is  at  the  head 
of  Delaware  Bay,  where  the  Delaware  River  emerges 
from  a  rock  gorge  which  it  has  followed  for  a  long 
distance  in  its  course  through  the  highlands  to  the 
north.  The  city  of  Trenton  is  built  upon  a  delta 
terrace  of  gravel,  two  or  three  miles  in  diameter, 
which  was  deposited  at  the  head  of  the  bay  under 
conditions    very    different    from    those    now    existing. 


220  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Its  general  level  is  fifty  feet  above  tide,  and  it  is 
composed  of  irregular  strata  of  coarse  and  fine  gravel 
containing  extensive  strata  of  pebbles  several  inches 
in  diameter,  and  an  occasional  bowlder  two  or  three 
feet  in  diameter.  The  material  of  this  terrace  is  all 
derived  from  the  valley  of  the  stream  above;  while 
everything  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  deposit 
was  made  by  tumultuous  currents  of  water  far  be- 
yond anything  possible  under  present  conditions. 
Upon  following  up  the  stream  one  finds  remnants  of 
the  high-level  gravel  terraces  everywhere  bordering 
the  trough,  which  also  speak  in  no  uncertain  voice 
of  a  former  tumultuous  current  far  above  the  level 
reached  by  the  present  stream.  Sixty-five  miles  above 
the  mouth  of  the  stream,  at  Belvidere,  the  explana- 
tion is  found.  Here  we  enter  the  glaciated  region, 
where  a  veritable  terminal  moraine  crosses  the  val- 
ley, and  we  learn  that  six  thousand  square  miles  of 
the  upper  part  of  the  drainage  basin  of  the  river  was 
deeply  enveloped  with  ice  during  the  Glacial  epoch. 
This  moraine  furnished  the  material  for  the  delta 
terrace  at  Trenton,  and  the  melting  of  the  glacial  ice 
furnished  the  floods  to  transport  it  through  the  long 
gonze  and  deposit  it  at  tide  level.  The  facts  are  too 
plain  to  need  any  discussion.  Seeing  is  believing. 
Nobody  now  questions  them. 


Chipped  implement  from  the  Trenton  gravel,  a,  front 
view;  h,  edge  view.  The  material  being  argillite,  or 
metamorphosed  slate,  is  incapable  of  being  wrought  into 
the  delicate  shapes   possible  with  flint.      (C.   C.   Abbott.) 


222  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Dr.  Abbott's  discoveries  in  this  delta  terrace  con- 
sisted of  roughly  chipped  implements,  made,  not  of 
flint,  which  is  rare  in  the  region,  but  of  argillite,  or 
metamorphosed  slate.  A  short  distance  above  Tren- 
ton a  series  of  well-know^n  trap  dikes  cross  the  valley 
in  a  diagonal  direction,  bursting  through  extensive 
Arch.Tian  slate  rocks.  The  heat  of  the  trap  has 
transformed  the  slate  into  an  incoherent  mass  which 
has  lost  its  stratification  and  can  be  chipped  like  flint, 
breaking  with  conchoidal  fracture.  But  the  texture  is 
coarse,  and  the  chipped  implements  made  from  it  are 
very  rude  as  compared  with  those  from  flint.  Still, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  artificial  character  of  a 
great  number  which  have  been  found  at  Trenton.^ 

Th.Q.  only  ground  of  doubt  which  can  be  urged 
relates  to  the  question  whether  the  implements  were 
really  found  in  undisturbed  gravel.  For  a  long  time 
this  was  questioned  by  many  investigators.  This  was 
made  possible  by  the  fact  that  at  first  no  one  but  Dr. 
Abbott  found  the  implements  in  place  in  imdisturbed 
strata.  This,  however,  was  not  strange,  since  he  was 
the  only  one  who  was  on  hand  when  they  would 
naturally  come  to  light.  For  several  years  the  Penn- 
sylvania Rnilroad  was  excavating  gravel  from  this 
terrace  near  Dr.  Abbott's  house,  so  that  he  was  in 
position  to  see  the  exposed  banks  daily.    In  more  than 


Man   in   the    Glacial   Epoch 


22"^ 


S1X1 


xty  cases  Dr.  Abbott  reported  iindino;  ar^illite  im- 
plements in  the  undisturbed  strata  of  this  gravel,  and 
in  more  than  250  cases  found  them  in  the  talus  at 
the  foot  of  the  bank,  where  it  was  altogether  proba- 
ble that  they  had  fallen  down  from  a  considerable 
depth  in  the  deposit.  At  the  same  time  hundreds  of 
the   implements  were   found   on   the  surface. 

Without  questioning  the  veracity  of  Dr.  Abbott, 
various  suggestions  were  made  as  to  how  error  could 
arise.  Ry  some  it  v.as  thought  that  it  would  not  be 
possible  always  to  distinguish  between  undisturbed 
strata  of  gravel  and  a  talus  which  had  fallen  down 
and  become  hardened.  But  this  could  not  account 
for  all  the  cases,  since  some  of  them  occurred  in 
ditches  freshly  dug  in  the  middle  of  the  deposit.  It 
was  then  suggested  that  the  implements  had  fallen 
into  holes  which  burrowing  animals  had  made,  or  into 
cracks  in  the  soil  which  occurred  during  extreme  dry 
weather,  or  still  again  that  they  had  followed  down 
the  holes  left  by  the  decaying  taproots  of  trees. 

To  settle  these  points  committees  at  two  difiFerent 
times  vkked  the  ground,  and  carried  on  some  inter- 
esting experiments.  Dr.  Abbott  had,  from  the  outset 
of  his  discoveries,  contended  that  argillite  implements 
were  practicallv  the  only  ones  found  in  the  glacial 
gravel.      But   on    the   surface   thousands   of    flint   and 


224  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

jasper  implements,  such  as  are  used  by  the  modern 
Indian,  are  found,  together  with  potter}^  To  settle 
this  point  the  committees  were  told  by  Mr.  Ernest 
Volk,  who  for  several  years  was  employed  to  carry 
on  excavations  for  Professor  F.  W.  Putnam,  curator 
of  the  Peabody  Museum,  that  they  might  select  any 
area  on  the  surface,  and  he  would  foretell  that  they 
would  find  numerous  flint  and  jasper  implements  and 
some  fragments  of  pottery  in  the  upper  layer  of  ten 
inches,  but  that  below  that  depth  they  would  find 
nothing  of  that  character,  but  would  find  an  occa- 
sional argillite  flake  or  implement.  In  both  cases  the 
committees  found  the  facts  as  Mr.  Volk  predicted. 
The  absence  of  flint  and  of  pottery  below  the  first 
foot  of  soil  was  complete,  and  from  the  next  two  or 
three  feet  ar5;illite  flakes  and  implements  were  occa- 
sionally obtained. 

The  drawback  to  these  investigations  was  that  the 
committee  penetrated  only  three  or  four  feet  from 
the  surface,  so  that  it  could  be  objected  that  they  had 
not  reached  the  real  glacial  gravel.  But  the  deposits 
penetrated  were  just  such  as  cover  all  flood  plains, 
where  finer  material  always  settles  upon  the  surface, 
being  laid  do\\n  by  the  gentler  overflows  which 
spread  over  the  flood  plain  at  its  highest  level.  Still 
the  fact  remained,  as  Dr.  Abbott  had  contended  from 


Man   in   the    Glncial  Epoch  225 

the  outset,  that  Mint  was  not  found  below  the  surface, 
anil  arglllite  was.  As  argillite  is  lighter  than  flint, 
it  would  seem  that  if  the  material  had  worked  into 
place  b}'  falling  into  cracks,  or  holes  made  by  animals, 
or  by  the  decay  of  taproots  of  trees,  it  would  have 
been  the  flint  and  not  the  argillite  that  occupied  the 
lower  position.^ 

But  still  there  were  doubters.  A  quietus  was  only 
attained  in  December  i,  1899,  when  Mr.  Volk  dis- 
co^•ered  and  photographed  before  removal,  a  fragment 
of  a  human  femur  in  the  cross-bedded  green  sand 
lying  hdow  a  mass  of  unassorted  gravel,  which  is 
unquestionably  of  glacial  age.  Upon  presentation  of 
this  evidence  to  the  society  of  Americanists,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1902,  all  doubts  were  silenced,  and  the  existence 
of  man  during  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch  in  New 
Jersey  has  become  an  accepted  fact."^ 

A  word,  however,  should  be  said  about  the  way 
these  implements  became  associated  with  the  gravel  at 
Trenton.  We  are  not  to  suppose,  as  many  seem  to 
do,  that  the  implements  were  dropped  from  boats 
with  which  primitive  man  was  moving  over  the  sur- 
face of  the  swollen  waters.  The  process  probably  was 
much  simpler.  The  flooded  condition  of  glacial 
streams  exists  only  during  the  warm  part  of  the  year. 
In    August   and    September   they   would    be   at   their 


226  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

height.  But  in  winter,  and  early  spring,  there  would 
be  little  water  in  the  stream,  and  the  delta  terrace  at 
tide  level  would  be  a  broad  expanse  of  dry  gravel 
over  which  primeval  man  could  roam  at  w^ill.  Here 
he  would  occasionally  lose  his  implements,  to  be  cov- 
ered by  a  fresh  stratum  of  gravel  during  the  ensuing 
flooded  season. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  important  of 
similar  discoveries  elsewhere  was  that  of  a  perfectly 
formed  implement  of  the  palaeolithic  type  discovered 
by  Professor  W.  C.  Mills,'"'  the  present  accomplished 
curator  of  the  museum  of  the  Ohio  State  Archaeolog- 
ical and  Historical  Society.  The  discovery  was  made 
in  October,  1889.  The  gravel  pit  in  which  it  oc- 
curred is  at  Newcomerstown  on  Buckhorn  Creek,  a 
small  tributary  of  the  Tuscarawas  River.  The  head- 
waters of  this  river  are  in  the  glaciated  region  about 
twenty  miles  to  the  north.  All  the  way  below  the 
glacial  boundary  the  trough  of  the  stream  is  bordered 
by  extensive  high-level  terraces  of  glacial  gravel.  The 
terrace  on  the  north  side  extends  back  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  into  the  recess  formed  by  the  junction  of 
Buckhorn  Creek,  and  is  there  twenty-five  feet  above 
the  present  flood  plain  of  the  river.  In  a  fresh  section 
of    this    terrace,    where    the    railroad    was    excavating 


riie  Xewcnmerstown  implement  side  by  side  with  one  from 
Amiens,  France,  (face  view),  reduced  one  half  in  diam- 
eter. (From  Wright's  Nfan  and  the  Cilacial  Period.) 
(By  courtesy  of  D.   Appleton   and    Co.) 


228  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

gravel,  Dr.  Mills  discovered  the  implement  projecting 
from  the  freshlj^  exposed  perpendicular  face,  sixteen 
feet  below  the  surface.  It  is  made  of  a  peculiar  dark 
flint  with  w^hite  specks  arising  from  the  occurrence  of 
small  shells  characteristic  of  the  Lower  Alercer  lime- 
stone found  in  the  near  vicinity.  In  form  it  is  a 
perfect  replica  of  an  implement  in  my  possession, 
which  came  from  Sir  John  Evans'  collection  from 
Amiens,  France,  showing  perhaps  that  in  palaeolithic 
times  the  fashions  originated  in  Paris,  as  they  con- 
tinue to  do  at  the  present  time. 

Other  implements  m  corresponding  situations  in 
glacial  terraces  in  the  United  States  are  two  found 
in  1885  by  Dr.  C.  L.  Metz,  a  specially  capable  coad- 
jutor of  Professor  Putnam  in  his  investigations  in 
the  Little  Miami  Valley,  near  Cincinnati.  One  of 
the  implements  occurred  in  the  coarse  gravel  at.  Love- 
land,  Ohio,  thirty  feet  below  the  surface,  the  other 
at  Madisonville,  several  miles  nearer  the  junction  of 
the  Little  Miami  with  the  Ohio.^ 

Another  important  locality  where  implements  have 
been  found  in  glacial  gravels  in  America  is  Little 
Falls,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  a  short  distance  above 
Minneapolis.  As  early  as  1877  Professor  N.  H. 
Winchell  called  attention  to  some  chipped  quartz  im- 
plements   found    in    the    terrace   of   the   river   at    that 


Man  in   the  Glacial  Epoch  229 

point,  and  near  an  outcrop  of  extensive  quartz  veins. 
Afterwards,  Miss  Franc  E.  Babbitt  found  a  lar<j^e 
number,  which  attracted  much  attention  at  the  time, 
and  led  to  considerable  controversy.  But  subsequent 
investigations  by  Professor  Winchell  and  Dr.  War- 
ren Upham  have  settled  beyond  reasonable  doubt  that 
these  quartz  quarries  were  resorted  to  by  primitive 
man  while  the  ice  of  the  Glacial  epoch  lingered  over 
the  northern  part  of  the  State;  and  that  he  roamed 
over  the  bare  exposures  of  gravel  terraces  during  the 
portions  of  the  seasons  when  the  w^ater  w^as  low,  as 
we  have  supposed  him  to  have  done  at  Trenton.  Here 
the  implements  lost  in  the  dry  season  were  covered 
by  the  torrents  which  came  down  during  the  sum- 
mer months  and  covered  the  whole  flood  plain,  a 
mile  or  more  in  width.  This,  of  course,  w^s  later 
than  the  time  of  the  formations  in  New  Jersey  and 
Ohio,  by  the  length  of  time  required  for  the  glacier 
to  melt  back  a  distance  of  several  hundred  miles.  But, 
according  to  Dr.  Upham's  calculations  as  to  the  rate 
of  melting,  it  was  not  over  two  thousand  years  before 
the  final  melting  of  the  ice  from  Hudson  Bay,  and 
perhaps  not  more  than  three  or  four  thousand  years 
later  than  the  formation  of  the  terraces  at  Trenton, 
Newcomerstown.   and    Madisonville." 


230  Orif^in  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

So  far,  in  America,  the  evidence  of  glacial  man  had 
been  limited  to  the  occurrence  of  his  implements  and 
of  a  single  human  bone  in  terraces  of  glacial  gravel. 
But  in  1902  great  interest  was  excited  by  the  reported 
discovery  of  a  human  skeleton  underneath  the  loess 
of  the  Missouri  River  at  Lansing,  Kansas,  a  little 
belov^^  Leavenworth.  The  skeleton  was  found  on  the 
farm  of  Mr.  Martin  Concannon,  by  him  and  his  sons 
while  tunnelling  in  the  loess  to  make  a  vegetable  cel- 
lar. At  the  time  of  the  discovery  they  had  pene- 
trated seventy  feet  from  the  entrance  of  the  tunnel 
and  were  twenty-three  feet  below  the  natural  sur- 
face. The  skull  and  the  bones  were  first  brought  to 
public  notice  by  Mr.  M.  C.  Lane  of  Kansas  City, 
Missouri.  But  an  artificial  chert  chip  and  some  re- 
mains of  other  human  skeletons  w^ere  found  in  the 
undisturbed  portions  of  the  tunnel  by  a  number  of 
other  scientific  men  w^ho  investigated  the  place,  so 
that  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  occurrence  of  human 
remains  in  the  place  indicated  by  the  Messrs.  Con- 
cannon.  The  discussion  which  ensued  related  wholly 
to  the  question  of  the  age  of  the  deposit  in  which  the 
remains  were  found.  To  arrive  at  a  proper  under- 
standing of  the  merits  of  the  case,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  give  an  outline  of  the  facts  about  the  loess  of  the 
Missouri  Valley.* 


Mail   til   the    Gldc'uil  Epoch  23 1 

For  several  hundred  miles  the  trough  of  the  Mis- 
souri Ki\cr,  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  feet  or  more, 
is  borderctl  by  an  accumulation  of  loam,  the  particles 
of  which  are  midway  in  size  between  clay  and  very 
fine  sand.  It  is  identical  in  structure  and  behavior 
with  the  "  loess  "  of  Southern  Russia,  of  the  Rhine 
Valley,  and  of  China  and  Central  Asia.  It  is  so 
porous  that  sprin,i2;s  arc  found  only  at  the  bottom.  It 
everywhere  has  the  peculiar  property  of  fracturing 
vertically,  so  that  it  presents  perpendicular  cliffs,  in 
some  cases  hundreds  of  feet  in  height,  w^hich  do  not 
crumble  under  the  action  of  the  elements  much  more 
than  does  the  hardest  rock.  Still  it  is  so  soft  that  it 
can  be  crushed  in  the  hands,  and  can  be  cultivated 
with  the  greatest  ease.  Indeed,  the  areas  covered  with 
loess  are  the  most  fertile  portions  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face, constituting  the  better  portions  of  China,  Cen- 
tral Asia,  and  Southern  Russia,  as  well  as  of  large 
portions  of  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi  valleys. 

Rut  there  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  wdiether 
loess  has  been  distributed  by  wind  or  water.  Since 
the  report  of  Baron  Richthofen  upon  the  loess  of 
China  a  number  of  geologists  of  the  highest  eminence 
have  maintained  the  wind  hypothesis.  In  this  opinion 
they  are  sustained  by  the  fact  that  the  animal  re- 
mains found   in   it  arc  exclusiveh'  of  snails  and  other 


232  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

land  species.  Moreover  the  prevailing  winds  of  Asia 
are  from  such  a  direction  that  they  v^-ould  bring  the 
material  constituting  the  loess  from  the  Desert  of 
Gobi,  and  they  are  known  to  be  loaded  with  dust 
swept  off  from  the  plains  of  Central  Asia.  The  ab- 
sence of  aquatic  shells  from  the  formation  is  certainly 
significant.^ 

But  on  the  other  hand  It  Is  evident  that  whatever 
part  the  wind  may  have  had  In  bringing  the  loess 
material  into  the  regions  where  It  Is  found,  water 
must  be  invoked  to  account  for  much  of  its  peculiar 
distribution.  In  the  Missouri  Valley  It  is  found  in 
about  equal  proportions  on  both  the  west  and  the  east 
side  of  the  trough,  though  the  prevailing  winds  are 
westerly.  Moreover,  in  many  places,  as  at  Leaven- 
worth, near  Lansing,  the  loess  runs  back  from  the 
brink  of  the  river  in  a  distinctly  formed  terrace, 
marking  a  temporary  water  level;  while  level-topped 
areas  frequently  occur  at  considerable  distance  from 
the  main  valley. 

Concerning  the  snail  shells  found  In  the  loess.  It 
Is  to  be  remarked  that  while  the  snail  Is  not  an 
aquatic  animal,  Its  most  natural  habitat  Is  on  the 
flood  plains  of  streams  which  are  periodically  over- 
flowed, and  purely  aquatic  shell-fish  are  never  found 
on  the  flood  plain,  but  In  the  bed  of  the  stream. 


Alan   in   the   Glacial   Epoch  233 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  wind  may  in  many  in- 
stances distribute  the  loess  over  hi<2;her  points  than 
that  reached  by  the  overflowing  water  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  formation  of  dunes.  I  have  myself  in- 
sisted upon  the  necessity  of  relying  on  the  wind  for 
the  accumulation  of  the  loess  in  the  mountainous  part 
of  Eastern  Mongolia.^*^  But  it  is  equally  clear  that 
as  the  great  rivers  of  China  are  now  tearing  down 
these  accumulations  in  the  mountains  and  redistrib- 
uting the  material  over  their  plains  near  the  seacoast, 
there  was  doubtless  an  analogous  distribution  of  loess 
in  glacial  times  by  the  greater  floods  which  coursed 
down  the  river  valleys  of  North  America. 

The  loess  of  the  Missouri  Valley  is  now  known 
to  have  a  definite  relation  to  the  glacial  ice  cap  at  a 
particular  stage  of  its  recession.  The  material  itself 
is  found  to  be  of  mechanical  origin,  and  is  believed 
to  be  for  the  most  part  the  finest  grist  of  the  conti- 
nental glacier.  The  time  of  its  deposition  is  corre- 
lated on  abundance  of  the  best  of  evidence,  with 
what  some  have  called  the  lowan  stage  of  the  gla- 
cial recession,  intermediate  between  the  Illinoisan 
and  the  Wisconsin.  The  southern  portion  of  Iowa 
and  the  northern  portion  of  Missouri  are  more  or 
less  covered  with  this  deposit  of  loess,  while  the 
northern   part  of  Iowa  is   free  from   it,  except  in   the 


234  Orifr'in  a?id  Antiquity  of  Man 

case  of  some  of  the  river  valleys  along  its  margin. 
But  below  the  middle  portion  of  Iowa,  all  the  south- 
erly flowing-  streams  are  bordered  with  heavy  de- 
posits of  the  material,  which  is  accumulated  in  special 
quantities  where  these  streams  join  or  approach  the 
Missouri  on  the  one  side  and  the  Mississippi  on  the 
other.  When  the  ice  w^as  melting  off  most  rapidly 
from  the  upper  basin  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi rivers  it  is  no  extravagant  supposition  that 
there  were  annual  floods  in  these  streams  rising  to 
a  height  of  two  hundred  feet.  At  the  same  time  there 
is  abundant  reason  for  believing  that  there  was  at 
that  time  a  northerly  differential  depression  on  the 
continent  which  greatly  diminished  the  gradient  of 
the  stream  flowing  south,  thus  rendering  these  im- 
mense floods  the  more  credible. ^^ 

The  date  of  this  lowan  stage  of  the  Glacial  epoch 
is  considerably  earlier  than  that  of  the  stage  at  which 
Niagara  began  its  work,  which  is  elsewhere  dis- 
cussed at  considerable  length.  But  it  is  one  of  the 
later  stages  of  the  epoch,  and  there  is  no  demonstrable 
reason  for  assigning  it  a  date  more  than  three  to  five 
thousand  j^ears  earlier  than  that  of  the  Wisconsin 
period,   during  which   the  Niagara  recession   began. 

A  question  has  been  raised,  however,  as  to  whether 
the  deposit  of  loess   at   Lansing  was  original    or  sec- 


Alan   in   the   Glacial  Epoch  235 

ondary.  Proiessor  T.  C.  Chamhcrlin  maintained  that 
the  evidence  was  doubtful,  and  that  it  might  be  a 
secondary  redcposition  of  the  material,  of  great  age, 
indeed,  but  much  younger  than  the  main  body  of  loess 
in  the  valley.  But  Professor  N.  H.  Winchell  and 
Dr.  Warren  Upham  (both  ver}^  high  authorities  upon 
such  subjects)  after  repeated  visits  adduce  over- 
whelming evidence  that  the  deposit  is  original,  and 
that  the  skeleton  was  buried  by  the  loess  at  the  time 
of  its  deposition  during  the  lowan  stage  of  glacial 
recession.^- 

Reason  for  doubting  that  remains  of  man  had  been 
found  in  the.  original  deposit  of  lowan  loess  at  Lan- 
sing would  seem,  however,  to  be  dissipated  by  the 
discovery  of  human  bones  by  Mr.  Robert  F.  Gilder, 
in  the  blufi  of  loess  near  Omaha  in  Nebraska.  The 
ground  w^as  thoroughly  studied  and  reported  upon  by 
Professor  E.  H.  Barbour  of  the  Nebraska  State  Uni- 
versity. The  human  bones,  including  a  skull,  were 
shown  to  be  in  undisturbed  loess  from  six  to  twelve 
feet  below  the  surface,  with  modern  remains  in  the 
stratum  above  them.  Evidently,  also,  they  wTre 
somewhat  waterworn,  showing  that  moving  water  had 
been  instrumental  in  transporting  them  to  their  pres- 
ent position.^-' 

The   principal    objection    urged    against    the    glacial 


236  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

age  of  the  Lansing  skull  is  that  it  is  not  much  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  a  modern  American  Indian.  This 
question,  however,  must  be  remitted  to  the  chapter  on 
the  physiological  evidence  of  man's  antiquity.  But 
it  is  in  place  to  remark  here  that  those  who  reason 
most  confidently  from  these  data  seem  to  have  a  much 
exaggerated  estimate  of  the  antiquity  of  the  Glacial 
epoch.  If  the  age  of  the  Lansing  man  be,  as  we  have 
surmised  on  plausible  evidence,  only  ten  or  twelve 
thousand  years,  that  is  not  much  farther  back  than 
we  find  civilized  men  possessing  exceedingly  well  de- 
veloped skulls  in  Babylonia  and   Egypt. 

In  contemplating  the  remains  of  glacial  man  in 
Eastern  North  America,  we  are  naturally  led  to  ask, 
Who  were  his  ancestors,  and  has  he  any  descend- 
ants? The  conditions  of  life  at  that  time,  and  the 
animal  remains  found  in  the  vicinity  of  Trenton, 
New  Jersey,  and  in  Southern  Ohio,  suggest  to  some 
the  likelihood  that  the  Eskimos  may  be  his  descend- 
ants. For,  as  the  F^skimo  skirts  the  borders  of  ex- 
isting ice  fields  and  seems  to  delight  in  its  weird 
conditions,  so  palneolithic  man  in  Eastern  America 
seems  to  have  eked  out  a  precarious  existence  along, 
perhaps,  both  the  advancing  and  the  retreating  ice 
front.    But  upon  the  whole  there  seems  no  satisfactory 


M(in    In   the    Gldcial  Epoch 


237 


evidence  of  any  connection  betw-een  pahi^olithic  man 
and  the  Eskimo.  Stone  implements  are  but  little 
used  by  the  Eskimos,  and  the  skulls  of  pahuolithic 
man,  so  far  as  they  have  been  observed,  are  not  of  the 
Eskimo  type.  Furthermore,  the  Eskimos  are  found 
upon  both  sides  of  Behring  Strait,  and  are  much 
more^hkely  to  have  emigrated  from  west  to  east  than 
in  the  contrary-  direction,  since  the  attractions  are 
greater  upon  the  eastern  side  of  Behring  Strait  than 
upon  the  western.  Nor  is  there  the  diversity  of  dia- 
lects among  the  Eskimos  which  would  ha^•e  arisen 
in  a  long  lapse  of  time. 

The  better  founded  opinion  of  ethnologists  now  is 
that  the  Eskimos  represent  the  latest  wave  of  prehis- 
toric emigration  from  Asia  to  North  America,  and 
that  a  tribe  having  become  inured  to  the  winters  of 
Northeastern  Siberia,  bettered  its  condition  by  cross- 
ing to  the  northern  shores  of  America,  and  thence 
secure  from  attack,  under  the  protection  of  their 
uninviting  conditions  of  life,  spread  to  the  islands 
and  shores  of  Eastern  America,  occupying  the  whole 
habitable  portion  of  Greenland  and  the  whole  eastern 
shore  of  the  continent  as  far  south  as  Labrador. 

The  evidences  of  glacial  man  in  America  all  indi- 
cate an  extremely  prinu'tive  social  condition.  They 
are   the    remains   of   men    not   only   in    the  stone   age, 


238  Origin  end  Antir/uify  of  Ulan 

but  in  the  earliest  stages  of  that  age,  before  smoothed 
stone  implements  had  come  into  use.  It  is  worth 
while  also  to  recall  the  animals  which  accompanied 
him  on  this  continent  at  that  early  period.  They  in- 
clude the  camel,  the  hippopotamus,  the  rhinoceros,  the 
tapir,  the  mammoth,  the  mastodon,  and  the  horse,  all 
of  which  were  abundant  in  the  central  latitu4es  of 
North  America  during  the  milder  climate  which  pre- 
ceded the  culmination  of  the  period.  As  the  ice 
pressed  southward  another  class  of  animals  were 
forced  down  to  the  same  region  to  struggle  with  the 
original  occupants  of  the  constricted  area,  amid  the 
rapidly  changing  conditions  of  life.  Of  this  latter 
class  we  may  mention  the  walrus,  the  Greenland 
reindeer,  the  caribou,  the  bison,  the  moose,  and  the 
musk  ox,  all  of  whose  remains,  as  already  noted,  are 
found  in  the  superficial  gravel  deposits  of  Southern 
New  Jersey  and  the  vicinity.^* 

It  is  by  no  means  an  altogether  improbable  supposi- 
tion regarding  the  fate  of  palaeolithic  man  in  Eastern 
North  America  that  with  many  of  the  species  asso- 
ciated with  him,  he  succumbed  to  the  adverse  condi- 
tions of  life  and  became  extinct.  A  little  reflection 
will  impress  one  with  the  widespread  disturbance 
which    the   advancing   ice   of   the  Glacial   epoch   must 


Man    in   the    Gldcial   Epoch  2},f) 

have  produced,  not  only  in  the  area  actually  glaciated, 
but  tlir()u;j:hout  the  whole  continent.  Before  the  (jla- 
cial  epoch  the  plants  and  animals  which  now  flourish 
in  Europe  and  in  the  central  portions  of  the  Atlantic 
States  of  North  America,  flourished  well  up  towards 
the  north  pole  in  Greenland  and  in  the  northern  part 
of  British  America  and  in  Iceland  and  Spitzber;j;cn. 
All  these  became  fugitives  before  the  advancing  rigors 
of  the  glacial  climate,  migrating  slowly  southward  to 
keep  pace  with  the  movement  of  their  natural  climatic 
conditions.  It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  that  the  prob- 
lem of  their  survival  was  not  merely  one  of  keeping 
pace  with  their  climatic  conditions,  but  was  largely 
one  of  success  in  the  sharp  competitive  struggle  forced 
upon  the  individuals  of  their  species  by  the  con- 
tracting area  of  the  continent.  What  species  should 
survive  this  struggle  would  depend  upon  a  very  com- 
plicated set  of  causes.  A  number  of  species  we  know 
succumbed  to  the  adverse  influences  and  became  ex- 
tinct in  North  America.  For,  before  the  Glacial 
epoch  there  were,  as  already  said,  two  species  of  lion, 
four  species  of  Canis,  six  species  of  horse,  two  of  bi- 
son, one  of  camel,  two  of  elephant,  two  of  mastodon, 
living  in  America,  which  had  become  extinct  previous 
to  its  discovery  by  the  whites;  and  in  late  Tertiary 
times   the    continent    fairly    swarmed    with    species   of 


240  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

horse,  rhinoceros,  camel,  and  various  other  animals, 
which  became  extinct  before  the  close  of  the  Glacial 
epoch.  It  would  be  natural,  also,  to  suppose  that  man 
found  it  impossible  to  cope  successfully  with  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  situation  and  so  was  unable  to  survive 
the  changes  of  that  destructive  period.  Whether  he 
really  did  so  we  have  no  certain  evidence,  but  much 
of  what  we  have  points  to  his  extinction  upon  this 
continent. ^^ 

Before  pausing  to  dwell  upon  the  direct  evidence 
bearing  upon  this  point,  it  will  be  profitable  to  say 
something  further  upon  the  variety  of  adverse  forces 
which  were  crowding  in  to  constrict  the  habitable  area 
of  North  America  during  the  progress  and  culmina- 
tion of  the  great  Ice  Age.  Not  only  did  the  ice  wall 
slowly  close  in  upon  it  from  the  north  to  limit  the 
area,  but  the  depression  to  wliich  we  have  referred, 
upon  the  Atlantic  coast  and  in  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley, still  further  constricted  the  habitable  area,  de- 
vastating the  fairest  portions  of  the  land.  At  the 
same  time  there  were  occurring  upon  the  Pacific  slope 
and  upon  the  plains  of  the  great  West  a  series  of 
some  of  the  most  enormous  volcanic  eruptions  which 
have  ever  been  witnessed  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  gold-bearing  gravels  of  California  are  doubtless 
parti v  of  glacial  origin.     The  sudden  melting  of  vast 


Man   in   the   Glacial  Epoch  241 

masses  of  glacial  ice  by  outflowing  streams  of  lava 
seems  to  have  given  a  unique  character  to  the  de- 
structive agencies  of  the  period.  Immense  tracts  in 
this  region  are  covered  by  vast  lava  deposits,  in  some 
places  many  hundreds  of  feet  in  thickness  and  ex- 
tending over  hundreds  of  thousands  of  square  miles. 
These  lava  outflov^^s  occurred  not  from  volcanic  cones, 
as  in  typical  craters  of  the  present  day,  but  from 
immense  fissures  where  the  earth  seemed  to  crack 
open  for  long  distances  to  permit  the  escape  of  the 
molten  flood.  Such  Quaternary  lava  masses  form 
the  walls  of  the  Columbia  River  for  scores  of  miles, 
and  constitute  an  important  portion  of  the  Yellow- 
stone Park.  Over  considerable  portions  of  Northeast- 
ern Nebraska,  interstratified  with  deposits  of  glacial 
origin,  is  an  extensive  stratum  of  volcanic  ash  which 
must  have  been  belched  out  during  that  time  from 
craters  hundreds  of  miles  away,  and  been  transported 
by  the  wind.^^ 

With  considerable  plausibility  Professor  Alexander 
Winchell  connects  these  vast  Quaternary  outflows  of 
lava  with  the  direct  effect  of  the  pressure  upon  the 
earth's  crust  exerted  by  the  ice  which  was  piled  up 
over  the  glaciated  area.  This  pressure  upon  one  part 
of  the  crust  would  cause  the  fluid  portion  of  the  in- 
terior to  exude  through  cracks  in  the  weaker  portions 


242  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

just  as  pressure  upon  one  part  of  an  orange  causes 
the  juice  to  exude  through  other  portions  of  the  rind. 
It  is  easy  to  see,  also,  that  these  great  lava  flows 
among  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Rock}-  Mountains 
by  melting  the  snow  and  ice  upon  their  summits 
and  the  glaciers  in  their  valleys,  have  produced 
local  floods  of  incredible  dimensions.  Thus  we  have 
man  and  his  companions  in  the  animal  world  hud- 
dled together  in  the  gradually  contracting  area  of  the 
southern  part  of  the  United  States  —  beset  with  a 
wall  of  ice  upon  the  north,  with  advancing  waves  of 
the  Atlantic  upon  the  east  and  with  the  extension  of 
the  Ciulf  of  Mexico  far  up  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
while  the  great  plains  of  the  West,  and  the  mountain 
slopes  of  the  Pacific  coast  were  made  uninhabitable 
both  by  fire  and  by  flood.  It  w^ould  be  strange  if, 
amid  it  all,  man  as  well  as  the  horse,  the  camel,  the 
elephant,  and  the  mastodon  should  not  have  become 
extinct  upon   this  continent. 

If  now  we  again  ask  for  the  origin  of  that  hardy 
race  whose  remains  are  found  in  the  glacial  terraces 
of  the  eastern  and  central  parts  of  the  United  States, 
our  attention  is  still  turned  westward  to  the  witness 
borne  by  the  relics  of  man,  discussed  in  a  later  chap- 
ter, found  in  the  auriferous  gravels  of  California,  and 
beneath  the  lava  beds  of  the  Pacific  coast. 


Man   in   the   Glacial  Epoch  243 

It  is  intcrestiiii:  to  notice  that  these  supposed 
earliest  remains  of  man  are  from  that  very  gateway 
through  which  we  supposed  the  migrations  of  the  red 
Indian  to  have  penetrated  the  continent.  So  that  we 
may  well  believe  that  glacial  man  entered  by  the 
same  route  which  we  have  supposed  the  red  Indian  to 
have  followed,  viz.,  that  leading  up  the  Columbia 
and  Snake  rivers  to  the  great  continental  divide  from 
which  the  streams  invite  emigration  into  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  and  the  genial  climates  of  the  South 
and  the  Southwest.  So  that  we  seem  here  to  see  a 
primeval  tide  of  emigration  from  Asia  along  the  same 
lines  which  at  a  much  later  date  were  followed  by 
the  present  so-called  aborigines  of  America.  But  the 
real  aborigines  were  the  pahuolithic  men  whom  we 
ha^'e  already  given  some  reason  to  suppose  became  ex- 
tinct through  the  fearful  and  trying  climatic  changes 
and  extensive  conflagrations  and  floods  connected  with 
the  advance  and  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch. 

Increasing  evidence  is  accumulating  of  the  existence 
of  such  floods.  Especially  does  study  of  the  glacial 
phenomena  \n  America  tend  to  give  credence  to  tho.^e 
traditions  of  destructive  floods  which  are  so  wiile- 
spread  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  Certainly, 
since  man  came  upon  this  continent  there  have  been 
changes  of  land  level,  and  abnormal  accumulations  of 


244  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

water  sufficient  to  submerge  a  large  part  of  the  in- 
habitable portions  of  the  United  States.  As  already 
stated,  there  was,  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch, 
a  depression  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  continent 
amounting  to  two  hundred  feet  along  the  coast  of 
New  Jersey,  to  three  hundred  feet  in  the  Champlain 
Valley,  six  hundred  feet  at  Montreal  and  one  thou- 
sand feet  farther  north.  In  the  Mississippi  Valley  it 
is  difficult  to  account  for  the  deposits  of  loess  without 
supposing  a  depression  of  two  or  three  hundred  feet 
in  the  lower  portion,  and  of  increased  extent  in  the 
upper  portions. 

But,  more  impressive  still,  are  the  indications  of 
enormous  floods  in  the  river  vallej^s  flowing  out  from 
the  glaciated  areas  during  the  melting  of  the  ice.  I 
was  the  first  to  call  attention  to  the  evidence  of  such 
floods  in  the  upper  Ohio  basin.  To  account  for  them 
a  glacial  dam  was  invoked  at  Cincinnati,  where  there 
was  clear  evidence  that  at  the  climax  of  the  epoch 
the  ice  crossed  the  Ohio  River  and  pushed  over  sev- 
eral miles  into  Kentucky.  The  effect  of  this  would  be 
to  produce  a  dam  five  hundred  feet  in  height  which 
would  flood  a  wide  margin  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
above,  extending  even  into  the  tributaries  of  the  Al- 
legheny and  the  Monongahela  above  Pittsburgh,  and 
submerging   that   city   to   a    depth    of   three   hundred 


Man   in   flic    Ghicial   Epoch  245 

feet.  Notliiiii:  has  been  toiiiul  to  tliscrcdit  this  the- 
ory. The  only  alternative  is  that  the  Hoods  them- 
selves annually  rose  tor  some  time  d urine  the  summer 
to  that  unprecedented  height.  As  has  already  been 
stated,  Hoods  of  two  hundred  feet  or  more  annually  de- 
vastated the  valley  of  the  Missouri  during  the  closing 
stages  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  entombing  in  its  debris 
the  remains  of  man ;  \\  hile,  as  noted  above,  the  late 
Professor  Tarr,  after  his  survey  of  the  glaciers  of 
Alaska,  estimates  that  during  the  closing  stages  of  the 
Glacial  epoch,  the  Mississippi  had  to  dispose  annually 
of  sixty  times  the  amount  of  her  present  outHow. 

Our  attention  has  already  been  directed  to  the  vast 
accumulations  of  water  in  front  of  the  retreating  ice 
where  it  obstructed  northerly  flowing  streams,  like 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  P.ed  River  of  the  North. 
But  still  more  striking  are  the  immense  accumulations 
in  interior  basins  like  that  of  Great  Salt  Lake  in 
Utah,  where  during  the  Glacial  epoch  a  body  of 
water  one  thousand  feet  deep  accumulated  over  an 
area  of  twenty  thousand  square  miles.  In  a  later 
chapter  we  shall  give  the  evidence  tliat  when  the  up- 
PC^  375  ^eet  of  this  accumulation  burst  the  barrier 
of  dirt  that  temporarily  held  it  in,  it  poured  down 
into  the  inhabited  Snake  River  Valley  for  twenty-five 
years  in  a  torrent  as  large  as  Niagara. 


24t»  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

It  is  important  in  this  survey  to  keep  in  mind  the 
influence,  already  indicated,  upon  land  levels  of  the 
ice  accumulations  of  the  Glacial  epoch.  At  the 
climax  of  the  period  sufficient  water  had  been  ab- 
stracted from  the  oceans  and  locked  up  in  land  ice 
over  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  to  lower  the  whole 
ocean  level  two  hundred  and  fifty,  and  some  of  the 
highest  authorities  say  five  hundred,  feet.  Not  far 
from  6,000,000,  and  some  of  the  highest  authorities 
say  12,000,000,  and  possibly  18,000,000,  cubic  miles 
of  water  were  thus  locked  up  in  ice' over  the  glaciated 
area  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  Such  a  transfer- 
ence of  material  from  the  ocean  bed  to  the  continental 
area  was  ver>'  likely  in  itself  a  cause  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce the  depression  of  land  known  to  have  taken  place 
during  the  period.^"  Indeed,  it  is  now  coming  to  be 
a  pretty  current  belief  among  geologists  that  the 
weight  of  the  ice.  accompanied  with  what  can  now 
be  demonstrated  its  very  rapid  melting,  explains 
these  widespread  evidences  of  post-glacial  submer- 
gence. Thus  has  history  become  joined  to  geology,  and 
every  student  of  the  antiquity  of  the  human  race 
is  compelled,  at  the  outset,  to  reckon  with  the  geolo- 
gist, and  especially  with  the  glacialist. 


^Jan   in   the   Glacial   Epoch  247 

From  South  America,  also,  remains  of  man  ar*- 
reported  from  i2;lacial  deposits  in  the  vicinity  of  Cuzco, 
Peru.'^  The  remains  consist  of  a  number  of  human 
bones  representing  dilterent  individuals,  but  not  suf- 
ficiently preserved  to  determine  much  about  the  char 
acter  of  the  individuals  to  which  they  belonged. 
Only  small  portions  of  the  skull  were  preserved  and 
the  other  bones  agreed  in  all  essential  respects  with 
"  normal  adult  male  Peruvians  of  the  later  Inca 
period." 

The  discovery  was  made  by  Mr.  Hiram  Bingham, 
Director  of  the  Yale  Peruvian  Expedition  in  191 1. 
From  the  geological  report  of  Professor  I.  Bow- 
man, it  appears  that  contemporaneously  with  the 
glaciation  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  there  was  a 
great  lowering  of  the  snow  line  in  the  equatorial  re- 
gions of  South  America,  when  extensive  glaciers  de- 
scended from  the  lofty  heights  of  the  Andes,  in  some 
places  to  within  8,500  feet  of  sea  level.  In  one  in- 
stance a  well-developed  terminal  moraine,  four  hun- 
dred feet  high,  was  found  at  that  elevation.  In  the 
vicinity  of  Cuzco,  which  is  itself  eleven  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  glaciers  extended  down  from  the  sur- 
rounding heights  as  far  as  the  twelve  thousand  and 
fifty  foot  line.  During  this  extension  of  the  ice  great 
quantities   of    gravel    were   washed    down    the    valleys 


248  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  build  up  the  plain  on  which  Cuzco  is  situated.  In 
one  of  these  tributary  valleys  two  sets  of  glacial 
deposits  are  clearly  exposed  by  the  erosion  of  the 
modern  stream.  The  lower  portion  consists  of  fine 
material,  which  from  the  description  we  should  say 
was  deposited  by  the  more  moderate  streams  which 
poured  forth  from  the  glacier  during  its  advance 
over  the  higher  portion  of  the  drainage  basin.  The 
upper  portion  consists  of  beds  of  coarse  gravel  which 
may  well  have  been  washed  down  during  the  melt- 
ing stages  of  the  glacier.  Altogether  these  deposits 
are  three  or  four  hundred  feet  in  thickness.  The 
bones  were  found  beneath  a  deposition  of  from 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  feet  of  gravel,  through 
which  a  channel  had  been  worn  by  the  present  stream 
since  the  departure  of  the  glacial  ice.  The  bones  lay 
about  midway  in  the  coarser  deposits.  Associated 
with  the  human  bones  were  those  of  the  dog,  and  of 
what  seem  to  be  the  bison,  which  before  had  not 
been  known  to  range  farther  south  than  Northeast- 
ern  Mexico. 

While  admitting  that  doubt  rests  on  some  points 
of  the  evidence,  Professor  Bowman  is  reasonably  con- 
fident that  the  remains  are  as  old  as  the  deposition 
of  the  glacial  deposits.  Their  age  would,  therefore, 
depend    on    the    date   of   the   Glacial    epoch    in    South 


Man   in   the   Glacud   Epoch  249 

America.     'Hi is   is  now   :^cne rally   acceded   to  be  con- 
temporaneous   with    that    in    North    America.       It    is 
interestini:    to    notice    that    Professor    Bowman    could 
distinguish  no   great  difference  between  the  condition 
of  the  coarse  and  fine  deposits  mentioned,  the  lower 
portion    beimi   apparently   as   fresh   as   the   upper   por- 
tion, and   he  has  no  data  by  which   to  determine  the 
rapidity    with    which    such    an    accumulation    would, 
take  place.      From   their   appearance  he  would  corre- 
late them  with  those  of  the  Wisconsin  episode  in  the 
United    States.      From    what    we    now   know    of    the 
rate   at  which   glaciers   are   melting   away   in   Alaska, 
and  of  the  enormous  increment  of  water  furnished  by 
the  melting  ice  to  the  streams  which  flow^  from  the 
ice-covered  drainage  basin  it  is  easy  to  see  that  there 
is  nothing  here  to  indicate  an  antiquity  of  more  than 
ten   or   twelve  thousand   years,   w^hile  there  would   be 
nothing  surprising  if  the  remains  should  prove  much 
younger  than  that. 


250  Orifrin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

MAN  AND  THE  LAVA  BEDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

The  Old  World  has  scarcely  yet  ceased  to  be  in- 
credulous concerning  the  marvellous  reports  upon  the 
geology  of  the  western  part  of  North  America.  When 
the  traveller  passes  westward  from  Cheyenne  into  the 
Laramie  Valley  in  Wyoming,  he  can  scarcely  believe 
that  he  is  crossing  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains at  an  elevation  of  nearly  nine  thousand  feet;  for 
the  only  mountains  visible  are  almost  as  distant  as 
the  eye  can  reach.  So  gradual  is  the  ascent  from  the 
Missouri  River  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
that  it  is  absolutely  imperceptible  to  the  naked  eye. 
The  route  lies  over  nearly  level  beds  of  Tertiary  and 
Cretaceous  rocks,  which  have  been  slightly  tilted  up 
by  the  elevation  of  the  main  axis  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain range  In  recent  geological  tlmes.^ 

The  period  of  the  deposition  of  these  extensive 
beds  was  a  most  interesting  one  In  the  histor}^  both 
of  America  and  of  the  world;  for  the  shores  of  the 
lakes  In  which  they  were  deposited  were  frequented 
by  vast  herds  of  animals  as  strange  In  form  and  hab- 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     251 

its  as  in  the  scientific  names  which  have  been  bestowed 
upon  them,  though  most  of  them  are  more  or  less 
related  to  existing  species.  Here  were  the  ancestors 
of  the  hyena,  the  tiger,  the  wolf,  and  the  panther; 
while  fraternizing  with  them  could  have  been  found 
the  rhinoceros,  the  mastodon,  the  elephant,  three  spe- 
cies of  camel,  and  five  of  the  horse,  with  a  numerous 
array  of  other  animals,  whose  scientific  names  would 
give  the  ordinary  student  no  idea  whatever. 

The  information  from  these  beds  which  has  created 
the  greatest  interest  pertains  to  the  horse,  for  America 
seems  to  have  been  the  birthplace  of  this  most  useful 
species  of  the  animal  kingdom.  It  is  here  that  the 
earliest  ancestors  of  the  horse  branched  off  from  some 
more  generalized  stock,  and  began  that  progress  which 
has  ended  in  the  great  number  of  varieties  of  his  do- 
mesticated descendants.  But  though  the  horse  was 
evolved  in  America,  for  some  strange  reason  the 
land  that  gave  him  birth  and  early  nurture  proved 
unfriendly  to  his  continuance,  and  the  species  disap- 
peared from  its  original  home;  so  that  when  Colum- 
bus discovered  the  continent  it  was  destitute  of  horses, 
—  those  we  now  have  being  tlie  descendants  of  im- 
portations since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  ccntun-. 
A  similar  fate  befell  a  number  of  other  species  which 
flourished    abundantly    in    America    during    the    Ter- 


252  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

tiar}'  period,  and  which  lingered  even  till  after  the 
advent  of  man  upon  the  continent.  In  the  preceding 
chapter  we  have  described  the  vicissitudes  of  man's 
experience  on  this  continent  in  connection  with  the 
advance  and  retreat  of  the  great  northern  ice  sheet. 
There  is,  if  anything,  a  still  more  interesting  history 
in  connection  with  the  vicissitudes  occasioned  by  the 
volcanic  eruptions  which  have  characterized  the  later 
geological  periods  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Geologists  whose  studies  of  volcanoes  had  been 
chiefly  confined  to  such  phenomena  in  the  Old  World 
were  for  a  long  time  incredulous  of  the  facts  reported 
from  the  western  borders  of  the  United  States.  Some 
of  these  eruptions  date  back  to  an  early  geological  age. 
But  the  most  of  them  belong  to  Tertiary  and  Post- 
Tertiary^  times,  and  they  were  on  a  most  enormous 
scale.  Literally,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  square  miles 
w^est  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  are  covered  with  fresh 
basaltic  lava,  and  over  large  areas  this  is  of  great 
thickness.  The  areas  where  the  basaltic  capping  is 
most  pronounced,  extend  over  Northern  California, 
Oregon,  Idaho,  Washington,  and  adjoining  regions. 
Tlie  Columbia  River,  where  it  cuts  its  way  across 
the  axis  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  is  lined  on  either 
side  by  precipitous  basaltic  cliffs,  through  which  it 
has  been  compelled  to  force  a  passage.     Seventy  miles 


Man  and  Lavti  Beds  of  the  Prirific  Coast     253 

south  of  the  Cascades  this  great  basaltic  phiin  has 
been  cut  into  by  the  Deschutes  River  for  a  distance 
of  140  miles  to  a  depth  of  1,000  to  2,000  feet  with- 
out reachini^  the  bottom  of  the  lava.  At  Shoshone 
Falls  in  Idaho  the  Snake  River  is  occupying  a  nar- 
row, precipitous  gorge  from  three  hundred  to  seven 
hundred  feet  in  depth,  the  sides  of  which  are  com- 
posed of  the  freshest  looking  lava.  At  the  falls  the 
river  plunges  down  three  hundred  feet  farther,  and 
continues  for  a  long  distance  between  perpendicular 
walls  of  basalt,  which  are  one  thousand  feet  in  height, 
and  from  whose  edges  almost  anywhere  a  stone  can 
be  thrown  with  sufficient  force  to  reach  the  water 
which  courses  along  at  the  bottom  of  the  canon. 

In  many  cases  the  lava  has  played  a  most  singular 
and  interesting  part  in  its  influence  upon  the  drainage 
of  the  country.  At  one  point  in  the  great  caiion  of 
the  Colorado  River  an  eruption  of  lava  ran  into  it 
from  the  north  side,  and  formed  an  immense  dam, 
obstructing  the  drainage  for  a  time,  and  giving  rise 
to  an  extensive  temporar\^  lake.  I^ut  in  the  natural 
course  of  things  the  water  has  prevailed,  and  long 
since  removed  the  obstacle.  On  the  California  coast, 
however,  it  is  evident  that  many  of  the  old  water 
courses  leading  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  have  been  per- 
manently   obliterated    by    the    extensive    eruptions    of 


254  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

lava   which   have   taken    place    in    the    region.      From 
near  the  summits  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  in  the  vicinity 
of  the   Yosemite   Caiion,   vast  eruptions  of  lava   have 
poured   out  and   flowed  down  the   river  valleys  for  a 
distance  of  sixty   or  seventy  miles.     These   eruptions 
have  necessarily  displaced  the  water  from  the  ancient 
channels,    and    compelled    it    to   seek    exit    by    a    new 
course,  roughly  parallel  with  the  old,  but  occasionally 
crossing  it.     Such   has  been  the  history  of   the   Stan- 
islaus River.     At  a  recent  geological  period  an  erup- 
tion   of    the   lava   occurred    near   its    headwaters   just 
below  the  summit  of  the  Sierra  which  followed  down 
its   shallow   channel    for   a   distance   of   fifty   or   sixty 
miles,   burning  its  gravel  and   completely   obliterating 
its  channel.     But  the  Stanislaus,  nothing  daunted,  has 
kept   on   its   quiet   work,   and   with   its   tributary   and 
parallel    streams,    has   worn    nev/   channels    far   below 
the   deserted    one,   and   has   removed   so   much   of   the 
softer    bedded    rocks    of    the    region    that    the    basalt 
stream   is   left   as   a  projecting   flat-topped   ridge,   the 
width   of   the   ancient   valley,    forming   a   marked    fea- 
ture   in    the    landscape    all    down    the    flanks    of    the 
mountain.      From    the    flat-topped    appearance    this    is 
locally  known  as  "  Table  Mountain." 

From    1850    to    i860    great    excitement    was    pro- 
duced   in    California    by    the    discover;^    that    the   old 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     255 

river  gravels  underneath   the  Table   Mountain  of  the 
Stanislaus    contained    gold    in    considerable    quantities, 
and  an  immense  amount  of  enterprise  and  capital  was 
expended  in  efforts  to  obtain  the  gold  that  had  been 
thus    securely    sealed    beneath    these    remarkable    lava 
deposits.     Tunnels  were  pushed    in   through   the   rim 
rock  at  the  base  of  the  lava,   expecting  to  strike  the 
old   bed   of  the   stream.      In  other  places  shafts  were 
sunk    from    the   surface    of    the   mountain    until    they 
should   accomplish  the  same  object.     In  all  it  is  esti^ 
mated  that  not  less  than  one  million  dollars  were  ex- 
pended in   the  vicinity  of  Sonora  in  efforts  to  secure 
the  gold  under  that  part  of  Table  Mountain.^ 

Naturally  many  things  were  found  beside  gold, 
among  which  were  the  bones  of  numerous  extinct 
animals,  which  we  elsewhere  have  learned  to  asso- 
ciate with  the  early  history  of  man,  and  finally  re- 
ports began  to  circulate  that  the  remains  of  man 
hmiself  had  been  found  securely  preserved  beneath  the 
lava  cap  of  l\ible  Mountain. 

The  evidence  that  human  implements,  and  frag- 
ments of  the  human  skeleton,  have  been  found  under- 
neath r-M,  Mountain  seems  to  be  abundantlv  suffi- 
cient; but.  as  the  witnesses  have  been  challenged,  and 
as  so  much  depends  upon  the  truth  of  their  report 
It  IS  best  to  o-ive  the  evidence  in  some  detail. 


256  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

The  first  man  to  call  special  attention  to  such  dis- 
coveries was  Dr.  Snell,  a  phj^sician  of  high  repute 
in  Sonora,  to  whom,  at  various  times  from  1850  to 
i860,  there  were  given  numerous  human  implements 
and  a  jaw,  which  were  said  by  the  miners  to  have 
been  found  under  the  lava  of  Table  Mountain.  One 
of  the  stone  implements  given  him  seems  to  have 
served  as  the  handle  of  a  bow,  and  there  were  one 
or  tw^o  spearheads  and  "  several  scoops  or  ladles  with 
well-shaped  handles."  These  were  not  discovered  by 
Dr.  Snell  in  place,  but  there  was  no  motive  for  the 
miners  to  deceive  him,  as  they  had  nothing  to  gain 
by  so  doing.  And  this  is  a  case  where  an  ordinary 
man's  testimony  is  as  good  as  an  expert's.  It  does  not 
require  an  expert  to  tell  whether  he  finds  a  thing  in 
a  cellar  or  in  a  garret.  An  object  found  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  driving  a  tunnel  under  Table 
Mountain  is  older  than  the  mountain.  Still,  as  if  to 
remove  all  cavil,  there  was  one  object  which  the  Doc- 
tor found  himself.  This  w^as  a  stone  implement  for 
grinding,  taken  with  his  own  hands  from  the  dirt  as 
it  came  out  from  a  shaft  under  Table  Mountain. 

During  this  same  decade,  Hon.  Paul  K.  Hubbs,  a 
well-known  citizen  of  Vallejo,  California,  and  at  one 
time  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  found 
a  portion  of  a  human  skull  in  the  mining  sluice  into 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     257 

which  the  dirt  from  one  of  the  shafts  under  Table 
Mountain  was  being  shoveled ;  and  there  was  cling- 
ing: to  the  specimen,  when  found,  portions  of  the 
gold-bearing  gravel.  This  fragment  was  given  by 
Mr.  Hubbs  to  Rev.  C.  F.  Winslow,  who  divided  it 
into  two  pieces,  and  sent  one  to  the  Boston  Society 
of  Natural  History,  the  other  to  the  Philadelphia 
Academy  of  Sciences;  and  an  account  of  the  discov- 
er}' is  given  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Boston  So- 
ciety of  Natural  History  for  October,  1857.  The 
point  in  the  tunnel  from  which  the  bucketful  of  dirt 
containing  this  object  came  was  180  feet  below  the 
surface  of  Table  Mountain.  At  about  the  same 
time,  one  of  the  owners  found  in  this  shaft,  also,  a 
large  stone  mortar,  fifteen  inches  in  diameter;  but  no 
pains  were  taken  to  preserve  it  and  it  has  disappeared, 
as  the  fragment  of  the  skull  would  have  done  except 
for  the  intelligent  interest  in  it  of  Mr.  Hubbs  and 
Mr.  Winslow.  Important  as  was  this  discovery  by 
Mr.  Hubbs,  and  promptly  as  it  was  reported  to  two 
of  the  best  known  scientific  societies  of  the  country, 
it  attracted  no  general  notice  until  Professor  Whit- 
ney's attention  was  turned  to  it,  ten  or  twelve  years 
later,  ^^•hen  the  ground  was  revisited,  the  original 
parties  were  questioned,  and  the  facts  as  above  stated 
were  placed  beyond  reasonable  doubt. 


258  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Upon  making  further  inquiry,  Professor  Whitney 
found  in  the  hands  of  the  miners  various  other  arti- 
cles said  to  have  come  from  under  Sonora  Table 
Mountain.  Among  these  was  a  large  white  marble 
bead,  about  an  inch  and  a  half  long  and  an  inch  and 
a  quarter  in  diameter,  with  a  perforation  suitable  for 
a  string.  This  bead  was  taken  in  1853,  by  Mr.  Oli- 
ver W.  Stevens,  from  a  carload  of  gravel  as  it  came 
out  of  the  tunnel.  The  load  w^as  obtained  200  feet 
in,  and  125  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  lava.  Be- 
side the  bead  there  was  found  the  tooth  of  a  masto- 
don. Both  objects  bore  evidence  in  themselves  to  the 
situation  from  which  they  came,  being  partially  in- 
crusted  w^ith  sulphate  of  iron.  Mr.  Llewellyn  Price 
also  gave  to  Professor  Whitney  the  particulars  con- 
cerning a  stone  mortar,  estimated  to  be  about  thirty 
inches  in  circumference,  which  he  found  in  1862  in 
what  was  known  as  the  Boston  tunnel,  about  1,800 
feet  in  from  its  mouth,  and  where  the  overlying  lava 
was  more  than  sixty  feet  deep. 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  are  all  independent 
cases  of  evidence,  dating  from  the  time  of  greatest 
activity  in  pushing  mines  under  this  lava  deposit.  Un- 
fortunately, the  expense  of  reaching  the  gravel  was 
so  great  that  after  a  time  the  work  was  suspended 
in  nearly  all  the  mines.     It  is  estimated  that  in  their 


Mm,  ,ind  L„v„  Beds  „i  ihe  Pnafic  Cast     239 

efforts  to  get  the  gold  from  under  Table  Mountain 
the  miners  spent  a  million  dollars  more  than  was  ever 
.'actually  returned  to  them.  But  from  time  to  time 
Inter  spasmodic  efforts  have  been  made  to  reach  this 
gold,  ami  the  discoveries  which  have  since  been  made 
will,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  add  greatlv  to  the  force 
ot  the  evidence  here  detailed  as  collected  by  Professor 
^V'hitney. 

One   of   these   subsequent    discoveries   is   that   of   a 
mortar  which  came  into  my  own  possession  in    iSqJ 
while  on  a  visit  to  Sonora.     This  was  six  and  a  half 
inches   m   diameter,    uith   a   bowl   about  three  and   a 
lialf  inches  broad   and  three  deep,   made  from  a  vol- 
canic fragment  of  rock.     It  had   been   found  by  Mr. 
-M.  C.  McTarnahan  in  the  Empire  mine,  which  was 
on    the   opposite   side   of   Table    Mountain    from    the 
Valentine  shaft.     The  tunnel  of  the  mine  had  been 
excavated    758    feet    before    reaching    the   gravel,  and 
was  there  175  feet  in  a  horizontal  line  from  the  ed^e 
of  the  Table  Mountain  basalt,  and  one  hundred   feet 
below  the  surface.    The  mortar  was  brought  out  from 
the  end  of  the  tunnel  by  Mr.   McTarnahan,  so  that 
there  would   seem  to  be  no  doubt  of  its  genuineness. 
An   account  of  this  was  given  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Geological   Society  of  A.nerica   in    fanuarv.    ,89, 
At  the  same  meeting,   Mr.   George  F.   Becker,  one 


26o  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  the  most  experienced  members  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  reported  having  received  from  Mr. 
J.  H.  Neale,  a  well-known  mining  superintendent, 
a  mortar  about  the  same  size  of  the  one  just  described 
concerning  w^hich  Mr.  Neale  made  affidavit  that  he 
took  it  with  his  own  hands  from  undisturbed  gravel 
in  the  Montezuma  tunnel  under  Table  Mountain, 
near  Sonora,  fourteen  hundred  feet  from  the  mouth 
of  the  tunnel,  and  between  two  and  three  hundred 
feet  from  the  edge  of  the  lava.  Several  obsidian  spear 
heads  were  also  found  by  him  in  close  proximity  to 
the  mortar.  Concerning  this,  Mr.  Becker  aptly  re- 
marked that  the  judgment  of  a  mining  engineer  in  a 
tunnel  which  he  was  himself  excavating  is  the  best 
that  can  be  obtained,  —  far  better  than  that  of  a 
chance  geologist  who  makes  a  temporary  visit.  For, 
the  engineer  is  acquainted  with  every  foot  of  the 
excavation,  and  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  is 
constantly  on  the  lookout  for  disturbances  which 
would  endanger  the  lives  of  the  workmen.^ 

At  the  same  meeting  of  the  Geological  Society, 
Mr.  Becker  presented  a  pestle,  given  to  him  by  Mr. 
Clarence  King,  who  made  the  celebrated  geological 
exploration  of  the  fortieth  parallel  across  the  conti- 
nent from  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific 
const,   and   who  was  the   first   director  of  the  United 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     20 1 

States  Geological  Survey.  Mr.  Kin^  said  that  he 
took  this  pestle  with  his  own  hands  from  the  undis- 
turbed gravel  underneath  Table  Mountain,  near  Tut- 
tletown,  between  Rawhide  Gulch,  where  Mr.  Neale's 
discoveries  were  made,  and  the  Empire  mine,  where 
the  McTarnahan  mortar  was  found. 

From  the  fact  that  placer  mining  has  nearly  ceased 
to  be  profitable  on  the  Pacific  coast,  it  is  not,  as 
already  remarked,  to  be  expected  that  numerous  dis- 
coveries will  be  made  at  the  present  time.  Still  they 
are  reported  occasionally.  The  last  one  that  has  come 
to  our  notice  was  made  in  1906  by  Mr.  J.  F.  Kemp 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  which  was 
of  two  mortars  found  in  the  undisturbed  gold-bearing 
gravels  of  Southern  Oregon,  which  are  certainly  as 
old  as  those  under  Table  Mountain. 

So  much  has  been  written  about  the  celebrated 
Calaveras  skull  that  notwithstanding  the  partial  dis- 
credit which  has  been  thrown  upon  it,  it  will  be  in 
place  to  give  the  facts  somewhat  fully  in  this  con- 
nection. These  are  as  follows:  In  February,  1866, 
Mr.  Mattison,  a  blacksmith,  living  at  Altaville,  be- 
tween the  two  mining  camps  known  as  Murphy's 
and  Angel's,  near  the  line  bct\\Ten  Calaveras  and 
Tuolumne  counties,  was  employing  his  spare  earnings 
in   running  a  mining  shaft   under  that  portion  of  the 


262  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Sonora  lava  flow  known  as  Bald  Hill.  He  had 
penetrated  the  base  of  the  hill  with  his  tunnel  until 
it  was  150  feet  below  the  surface,  the  intervening 
space  being  occupied  by  distinct  strata  of  lava  interca- 
lated with  thin  beds  of  gravel,  —  the  superincumbent 
lava  being  nearly  one  hundred  feet  thick.  Here,  in 
connection  with  some  petrified  wood,  Air.  Mattison 
found,  thickly  encased  in  cemented  gravel,  an  object 
which  he  first  thought  was  the  root  of  a  tree.  But 
what  he  mistook  for  a  root  proved  to  be  the  lower 
jaw  attached  to  the  skull  above  referred  to.  Having 
brought  the  shapeless  mass  to  the  surface,  and  finding 
it  of  no  value  to  himself,  Mr.  Mattison  gave  it  to 
Mr.  Scribner,  who  was  then  acting  as  agent  for  an 
express  company,  and  who  was  for  thirty  years  later 
a  prominent  and  highly  respected  business  man  in 
the  neighborhood,  living  at  Angel's.  Mr.  Scribner, 
on  perceiving  what  it  was,  at  once  passed  it  into  the 
hands  of  Dr.  Jones,  an  intimate  friend  of  his  living 
a  few  miles  away  at  Murphy's.  Dr.  Jones  was  for 
many  years  afterwards  a  resident  of  San  Francisco, 
and,  like  Mr.  Scribner,  was  a  gentleman  of  the  high- 
est reputation.  Not  having  a  vent^  definite  idea  of 
the  situation  in  which  the  relic  had  been  found,  Dr. 
Jones  laid  it  aside  in  his  yard,  and  paid  little  attention 
to  it  until   the   following  June,   when   Mr.    Mattison 


]\I(in  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     20}) 

chanced  to  come  to  liis  office  for  a  medical  pre- 
scription. Recalling;  Mr.  Mattison's  relation  to  the 
discovery,  Dr.  Jones  questioned  him  as  to  the  circum- 
stances attending  the  discovery  of  the  skull,  and 
elicited  the  facts  as  above  stated.  Dr.  Jones  imme- 
diately communicated  with  Professor  Whitney  at  San 
Francisco,  and  at  his  request  forwarded  the  skull  to 
him.  As  soon  as  was  convenient  Professor  Whitney 
visited  Altaville,  and  made  a  careful  examination  of 
the  evidence,  both  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  dis- 
covery and  as  to  the  geological  conditions  in  which 
the  skiill  was  reported  to  have  been  found. 

Not  long  after.  Professor  Whitney  was  permitted 
to  take  the  skull  with  him,  on  his  return  home  to 
Cambridge,  Alassachusetts,  where,  in  connection  with 
Dr.  Jeffries  Wyman,  he  subjected  it  to  a  ven,^  careful 
investigation,  to  see  if  the  relic  itself  confirmed  the 
story  told  by  the  discoverer.  In  their  opinion  it  did 
so,  to  such  a  degree  that  the  circumstantial  evidence 
alone  placed  its  genuineness  beyond  all  reasonable 
question.  According  to  this  examination,  the  skull 
was  in  a  fossilized  condition,  —  that  is,  the  phosphate 
of  lime  had  been  largely  replaced  by  the  carbonate  of 
lime  (as  would  not  have  been  the  case  had  it  lain 
near  the  surface  in  loose  gravel).  —  and  evidently  it 
had    been    exposed    to    considerable    rough    treatment 


264  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

while    rolled    along    In    the    channel    of    the    ancient 
stream. 

We  are  bound  to  add,  however,  that  the  skull 
which  Professor  Whitney  presented  has  been  pretty 
thoroughly  discredited  by  the  recent  Investigations  of 
Mr.  William  J.  Sinclair,*  who  on  reexamining  the 
material  of  the  matrix  In  which  It  was  embedded, 
found  evidence  that  It  was  a  com.paratlvely  modern 
skull  from  some  one  of  the  numerous  neighboring  cav- 
erns that  were  used  as  burial  places.  But  In  the 
opinion  of  Professor  Putnam,  In  which  on  good  evi- 
dence I  concur,  a  skull  of  some  sort  was  found  as 
reported  by  Mr.  Mattlson  and  brought  to  Mr.  Scrlb- 
ner;  but  In  the  Interval  of  several  months  while  It 
was  lying  with  others  neglected  outside  Dr.  Jones 
office  the  wrong  one  was  sent  to  Professor  Wyman. 
(See  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  vli.  p.   186.) 

Moreover,  Mr.  Sinclair  Is  not  satisfied  with  chal- 
lenging the  genuineness  of  the  Calaveras  skull,  but 
goes  through  the  whole  evidence  connecting  man  with 
the  auriferous  gravels  of  California,  and  finds  rea- 
sons satisfactory  to  himself  for  setting  It  all  aside  as 
Inconclusive.  While,  however,  he  Is  able  to  show 
some  possibility  of  error  concerning  each  one  in  par- 
ticular, the  cumulation  of  evidence  from  so  many 
quarters   Is  such    that   it   is  Impossible   by   this   means 


^I(in  (ind  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacl/ir  Coast     2^5 

i^rcatly  to  (.liiiiinish  its  force.  Hcsidcs,  Mr.  Sinclair 
and  those  who  side  with  his  views,  seem,  in  their 
conclusions,  to  be  unduly  swayed  by  certain  untenable 
theories  concerning  the  age  of  the  auriferous  gravels, 
and  concerning  the  durability  of  species.  They  re- 
gard the  deep  gravels  as  of  Eocene  or  early  Miocene 
age.  That  man  should  have  existed  in  this  remote 
geologic  age  is  justly  thought  by  Mr.  Sinclair  to  be 
"  contrary  to  all  precedent  in  the  histor}^  of  organ- 
isms, which  teaches  that  mammalian  species  are  short 
lived."  But  other,  and  we  think,  the  best  authorities, 
regard  the  mammalian  remains  associated  with  man 
in  these  gravels  to  be  of  late  Pliocene  or  Post-Pliocene 
species.  Lesquereux  regarded  the  plants  of  the  deep 
placers  as  decidedly  Pliocene,  and  the  animal  remains 
are  those  with  which  we  have  been  made  familiar  in 
our  study  of  the  glacial  deposits,  viz.,  the  mastodon, 
the  mammoth,  the  tapir,  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippopota- 
mus, the  camel,  and  the  extinct  horse.  As  to  the  rela- 
tive age  of  these  deposits  it  will  be  necessary  to  enter 
into  a  fuller  discussion. 

Before  doing  so,  however,  it  will  be  in  place  to 
present  somewhat  fully  the  evidence  of  a  remarkable 
discovery  of  a  small  figurine  in  Idaho,  under  condi- 
tions  analogous   to    those   surrounding   the    California 


266  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

discoveries.  We  refer  to  the  so-called  Nampa  image. 
This  is  a  skillfully  formed  miniature  representation  of 
the  human  body,  made  from  clay,  and  slightly  burned, 
which  was  brought  to  my  notice  in  October,  1889,  by 
Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  its  genuineness  being 
certified  to  by  evidence  that  was  perfectly  satisfactory 
to  him.  The  figurine  was  found  by  Mr.  M.  A. 
Kurtz, ^  at  Nampa,  Idaho,  while  boring  an  artesian 
well  at  that  place. 

Nampa  is  at  the  junction  of  the  branch  railroad 
connecting  the  Union  Pacific  Road  with  Boise  City, 
the  capital  of  Idaho,  and  is  near  the  western  border 
of  the  State  about  half  way  between  Boise  River  and 
Snake  River.  The  record  of  the  well  shows  that  in 
reaching  the  stratum  from  w^hich  the  image  was 
brought  up  they  had  penetrated  first  about  fifty  feet 
of  soil,  then  about  fifteen  feet  of  basalt,  and  after- 
wards passed  through  alternate  beds  of  clay  and 
quicksand,  —  the  quicksand  largely  predominating,  — 
down  to  a  depth  of  about  three  hundred  feet,  when 
the  sand  pump  began  to  bring  up  numerous  clay 
balls,  some  of  them  more  than  two  inches  in  diameter, 
densely  coated  with  an  iron  oxide.  In  the  lower  por- 
tion of  this  stratum  there  were  evidences  of  a  buried 
land  surface,  over  which  there  had  been  a  slight  accu- 
mulation of  vegetable  mould.     It  was  from  this  point 


M(i/i  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Faei/ie  Coast      267 

that  the  image  in  question  was  brought  up  at  a  depth 
of  three  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  A  few  feet  farther 
down,  sand  rock  was  reached. 

The  image  in  question  is  made  of  the  same  ma- 
terial as  that  of  the  clay  balls  mentioned,  and  is 
about  an  inch  and  a  half  long;  and  remarkable  for 
the  perfection  with  which  it  represents  the  human 
form.  It  was  not,  however,  a  perfect  product.  The 
legs  were  broken  off,  the  hands  had  never  been  put 
on,  and  the  face  was  imperfectly  finished.  It  was  a 
female  figure,  and  had  the  lifelike  lineaments  in  the 
parts  which  were  finished  that  would  do  credit  to 
classic  centers  of  art.  Upon  showing  the  object  to 
Professor  F.  W.  Putnam,  he  at  once  directed  the 
attention  to  the  character  of  the  incrustations  of  iron 
upon  the  surface  as  indicative  of  a  relic  of  consider- 
able antiquity.  There  were  patches  of  the  anhydrous 
red  oxide  of  iron  in  protected  places  upon  it,  such  as 
could  not  have  been  formed  upon  any  fraudulent  ob- 
ject. In  visiting  the  locality  in  1890  I  took  special 
pains,  while  on  the  ground,  to  compare  the  discolor- 
ation of  the  oxide  upon  the  image  with  that  upon  the 
clay  balls  still  found  among  the  debris  which  had 
come  from  the  well,  and  ascertained  it  to  be  as  nearly 
identical  as  it  is  possible  to  be.  These  confirmaton-  evi- 
dences, in  connection  with  the  ver}-  satisfactory  charac- 


268 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


ter  of  the  evidence  furnished  by  the  parties  who  made 
the  discovery,  and  confirmed  by  Mr.  G.  M.  Gum- 
ming, of  Boston  (at  that  time  the  superintendent  of 
that  division  of  the  Oregon  Short  Line  Railroad,  and 
who  knew  all  the  parties,  and  was  upon  the  ground 
a  day  or  two  after  the  discovery)  placed  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  discovery  beyond  reasonable  doubt.  To 
this  evidence  is  to  be  added,  also,  the  general  con^ 
formity  of  the  object  to  the  other  relics  of  man  which 
have  been  found  beneath  the  lava  deposits  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast. 

On   comparing  the  figurine   one   cannot  help   being 
struck   with   its   resemblance    to    numerous   "Aurigna- 


Nampa  figurine.      View  from  front,  back,  and  side 
(natural  size). 


cian  figurines  "  found  in  prehistoric  caverns  in  France, 


Man  and  Lava  Bids  of  the  Pacific  Coast      2O9 

Belizium,  and  Moravia.  Especially  is  the  resemblance 
striking  to  that  of  "  The  Venus  impudica  from  Lau- 
gerie-Basse,"  reported  by  Hreiiil  and  figured  in  Sol- 
las's   "Ancient    Hunters."'' 


The    Venus    impudica,    from    a    pre-historic   cavern    in 
France.     (From   Sollas's  "Ancient   Hunters.") 

During  my  visit  to  Nampa,  special  pains  was  taken 
to  ascertain  whether  there  was  any  possibility  that  the 
object  should   have   been   originally   at   a   higher   level 


270  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

and  had  by  some  means  worked  to  the  position  from 
which  it  was  brought  up.  To  answer  objections  it 
will  be  well  to  give  the  facts  more  fully.  The  well 
was  six  inches  in  diameter  and  was  tubed  with 
heavy  iron  tubing,  which  w^as  driven  down  from 
the  top,  and  screwed  together,  section  by  section,  as 
progress  was  made.  Thus  it  was  impossible  for  any- 
thing to  work  in  from  the  sides.  The  drill  was  not 
used  after  penetrating  the  lava  deposit  near  the  sur- 
face, but  the  tube  was  driven  down,  and  the  included 
material  brought  out  from  time  to  time  by  use  of  a 
sand  pump.  The  inside  diameter  of  the  tubing  was 
about  five  inches.  The  sand  pump  consisted  of  a 
tube  about  eight  feet  long,  with  a  valve,  of  three  and 
a  half  inches  aperture  at  the  bottom,  opening  upwards. 
There  was  also  a  suction  valve,  which  played  inside 
of  this  tube,  which  was  attached  to  what  is  called  a 
jar,  that  is,  a  long  iron  loop  which  followed  the  pis- 
ton down  to  the  bottom  of  the  pump,  and  upon  the 
reversal  of  the  machinery,  after  the  pump  had  been 
let  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  well,  suddenly  drew 
the  valve  to  the  top  of  the  pump  and  filled  it  with 
water  and  sand  and  such  other  material  as  was 
accessible.  Whereupon  the  whole  was  dra\vn  to  the 
surface,  and  the  tube  emptied.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  there  was   nothing  at  all   impossible  or  improb- 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     271 

able  in  bringing  up  an  object  of  this  sort  from  the 
depth  mentioned,  if  only  it  should  come  within  reach 
of  the  suction  of  the  pump. 

But  at  first  it  seems  exceedingly  improbable  that  in 
driving  down  six-inch  tubing  for  a  depth  of  three 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  one  should  at  random  strike 
so  rare  an  object  as  this.  In  commenting,  however, 
upon  the  subject,  Professor  Putnam  has  well  said 
this  is  not  the  only  well  which  has  been  bored  in  the 
world,  but  one  of  a  great  many  thousand.  So  that 
we  have  not  to  overcome  the  probability  against 
striking  such  an  object  at  the  first  venture,  but  at 
the  ten-thousandth  venture.  Furthermore,  the  im- 
probability is  greatly  diminished  by  the  fact  that  after 
the  tube  had  penetrated  the  strata  of  clay,  which  were 
impervious  to  water,  the  quicksand  w^orked  into  the 
space  below  in  great  abundance,  being  forced  in  by 
the  hydraulic  pressure  around,  so  that  an  enormous 
quantity  of  the  material  was  brought  up  from  near 
the  bottom,  in  excess  of  what  would  be  in  the  direct 
line  of  the  tubing.  Indeed,  it  seems  quite  probable 
that  in  clearing  the  tube  the  sand  pump  may  in  its 
repeated  journeys  have  sucked  up  the  material  over 
the  bottom  from  many  square  yards.  At  any  rate  an 
immense  pile  of  qm'cksand  w\as  formed  by  the  process. 
Assuming,    therefore,    that   the   evidence   of   the   genu- 


272  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ineness  is  satisfactory,  we  will  consider  the  facts 
bearing  upon  the  age  of  the  relic. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  vast  extent  of  the 
lava  deposits  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  To  un- 
derstand their  bearing  upon  the  chronology  of  the 
human  relics  found  beneath  them,  we  must  go  more 
minutely  into  details. 

In  crossing  the  continent  upon  the  Union  Pacific 
and  Oregon  Short  Line  Railroad,  one  first  encounters 
lava  fields  near  Soda  Springs,  in  the  Bear  River  Val- 
ley, in  Southeastern  Idaho.  Here  he  finds  extensive 
level  areas  of  basalt,  filling  the  w^hole  space  between 
the  mountains  like  a  solidified  inundation,  which  it 
really  is.  Occasional  small  craters  appear  above  the 
surface  of  the  basalt  plains,  but  they  seem  totally  in- 
adequate to  have  supplied  the  vast  amount  of  lava 
which  spread  over  the  plain.  These  craters  are  prob- 
ably but  the  last  breathing  holes  of  the  volcanic  fires 
which  produced  the  total  result.  The  fresh  condition 
of  the  craters  impresses  one  with  the  recentness  of  the 
eruptions.  Several  hundred  square  miles  are  here 
covered  with  lava  to  an  unknown  depth ;  certainly  as 
much  as  one  hundred  feet.  Bear  River,  which  here 
turns  an  acute  angle  around  an  intervening  mountain 
mass,  was  forced  by  the  lava  flow  from  the  north  to 
hug  close  to  the  mountain  wall. 


Man  and  Laz'a  Ihds  of  the  Pacific  Coast 


21^ 


A   much   more   impressive   vkw  of   the   lava   plains 
is  received  on  crossing  the  Port  Neuf  Mountains  and 
coming   down   to   the   valley  of   Snake   River,    in   the 
vicinity  of  the  American   Falls,   where  one  looks  out 
upon   a   basaltic  valley   extending   forty  or  fifty  miles 
in  width,  from  the  Blackfoot  Mountains  on  the  south- 
east to  the  Lost  River  Mountains  on  the  northwest. 
From  this  barren  waste  of  lava,  much  of  it  seemingly 
as  fresh  as  though  it  had  poured  out  of  its  vents  but 
yesterday,  several  huttes  rise  like  islands  from  the  sea, 
and  have  long  served  as  waymarks  for  weary  travel- 
lers attempting  to  cross  this  trackless  plain.     Far  in 
the   east  the   Teton    Mountains  look   down   upon   us 
from   their  serene  heights  on   the  axis  of  the   Rocky 
^Mountain  chain.    The  length  of  this  lava  plain  from 
northeast  to  southwest  is  about  two  hundred  and  forty 
miles,    making    its    total    area    not    far    from    twelve 
thousand  square  miles.     The  Snake  River  flows  pretty 
close    to    the    southern    edge    of    this    basaltic    plain, 
having,    like   the    Bear   River,    evidently   been   pushed 
aside  from  the  center  of  the  valley  by  the  encroach- 
ments from  the  lava  fields  of  the  north.     Pillar  Butte 
IS  a  crater  of  considerable  size,  but  totally  inadequate 
to   have   supplied   a  tithe  of  the  lava  that   forms  the 
prairie-like   expansion    about    it.      There   can    be   but 


274  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

little  question  that  this  vast  lava  flow  has  poured  out 
of  fissures  rather  than  from  craters.'^ 

It  fs  difficult  to  obtain  any  definite  estimate  of  the 
age  of  this  lava  flow.  Some  of  the  craters  were 
thought  by  Hayden  to  have  been  in  eruption  within 
the  last  few  hundred  years.  Indeed,  it  is  not  improb- 
able that  the  geysers  of  the  National  Park,  which  are 
at  the  head  of  this  valley,  are  the  last  gasps  of  the 
waning  volcanic  force  which  has  produced  these  vast 
results;  but  it  is  equally  evident  that  when  measured 
in  years  the  date  of  the  earlier  flows  must  be  placed  a 
great  many  thousand  years  ago;  for  the  erosion  at 
Shoshone  Falls  is  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  times 
as  much  as  has  been  accomplished  by  the  Niagara 
River  since  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch.  Yet  it  is 
evident  that  massive  eruptions  continued  up  to  late 
Tertiary  or  Post-Tertiary  times.  For,  the  shells  found 
beneath  the  lava  at  Glenn's  Ferry  (eighty-five  miles 
east  of  Nampa  in  the  Snake  River  Valley)  are  iden- 
tified by  Mr.  Dall  as  belonging  to  one  or  other  of 
these  periods. 

But  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  center  of  interest 
concerning  the  deposits  found  at  Nampa.  For  this 
we  must  go  seventy-five  miles  farther  down  the  val- 
ley, where  we  find  it  considerably  narrower  than  the 
upper  portion,  and  still  filled  with  the  basaltic  lava, 


iMdfi  and  Lara  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     275 

thout2;h  separated  to  a  considerable  extent  from  the 
greater  area  to  the  east.  In  this  narrowing  portion 
of  the  valley,  between  the  Boise  and  the  Snake  River, 
about  five  hundred  square  miles  was  covered  with 
lava.  Nampa  is  almost  upon  the  extreme  western 
edge  of  the  flow,  the  lava  entirely  disappearing  four 
miles  farther  west.  No  basalt  appears  for  seventy 
miles  below  this  point  in  the  valley  of  Snake  River. 
The  lava  deposit  upon  the  edge  of  which  Nampa 
stands  seems  to  have  come  from  a  center  about  twenty 
miles  to  the  east,  and  to  have  pushed  in  like  a  wedge 
between  the  Boise  and  the  Snake  River,  thrusting 
them  both  against  the  mountains  w^hich  are  here 
closing  in  upon  the  valley.  From  some  extensive 
canons  cut  through  the  lava  by  the  Boise  River  nine 
miles  above  Boise  City,  it  would  seem  that  a  number 
of  thousand  years  must  have  elapsed  since  a  tongue  of 
the  lava  there  thrust  up  against  the  mountains  and 
temporarily  obstructed  the  drainage.  The  lower  strata 
of  the  canon,  however,  consist  of  gravel  deposits 
which  were  overrun  by  the  lava  stream.  In  the  same 
manner  the  Boise  River  cuts  across  the  western  edge 
of  the  lava,  where  it  has  thinned  out  to  a  few  feet 
near  Caldvcll,  about  four  miles  west  of  Nampa. 

It  will  appear  on  further  investigation  that  the  age 
of  the  stratum  from  which  the  Nampa  image  was  de- 


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Man  (ind  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     277 


Map  showing  Pocatello,  Nampa,  and  the  valley  of  the 
Snake  River.  (From  Wright's  "  Man  and  the  Glacial 
Period.")      (Courtesy  of  D.   Appleton  and   Co.) 

rived  is  not  necessarily  more  than  a  few  thousand 
years  old.  For  the  deposition  of  quicksand  and  clay 
might  in  favoring  conditions  take  place  very  rapidly, 
and  there  are  readily  discernible  indications  of  a  flooded 
condition  of  the  valley  within  comparatively  recent 
times,  and  while  it  retained  about  its  present  relative 
altitude  and  slope.  During  the  Glacial  epoch,  when 
glaciers  came  down  as  they  did  from  the  Teton 
Mountains  on  to  the  edge  of  the  lava  plains  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  Snake  River  Valley,  there  must  have 
been  a  great  increase  in  all  the  streams  which  poured 
in  from  the  surrounding  mountains,  especially  upon 
the   final    melting    awav   of   the    ice.      The    results   of 


278  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  ^ Man 

such  floods  would  be  various.  In  certain  places  It 
would  deposit  great  quantities  of  gravel;  and  in  other 
places,  where  there  w^re  eddies  or  back  water,  there 
would  be  a  deposit  of  quicksand  and  clay,  thus  ac- 
counting for  these  extensive  deposits  of  silt  In  the 
lower  part  of  the  Snake  River  Valley.  Fully  to  ap- 
preciate the  situation,  however,  we  must  turn  to  the 
description  given  by  Dr.  Gilbert  of  the  enormous 
debacle  which  occurred  in  the  valley  of  the  Snake 
River  in  connection  with  the  vicissitudes  of  Great 
Salt  Lake  during  the  Glacial  epoch." 

Great  Salt  Lake  In  Utah  is  now  a  shallow  body  of 
water,  covering  about  2,000  square  miles,  and  aver- 
aging about  thirteen  feet  In  depth,  the  deepest  portion 
not  being  over  fifty  feet.  This  lies  in  one  of  the 
enclosed  basins  of  a  vast  arid  region,  extending  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Sierra  Nevada  over  a  width 
of  several  hundred  miles.  The  rainfall  of  the  basin  is 
now  barely  enough  to  supply  the  waste  of  evaporation 
from  the  surface  of  the  lake.  From  all  the  data  which 
we  have  obtained  since  Captain  Bonneville's  party 
visited  the  lake  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century, 
we  should  have  nothing  to  warrant  us  In  expecting 
any  marked  change  in  the  condition  of  the  lake  in  the 
future,  nor  would  these  observations  point  with  de- 
cisiveness to  any  great  change  in  the  past.     There  are 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast 


279 


fluctuations  of  level  in  the  different  seasons  of  the 
year,  and  slight  fluctuations  from  year  to  year;  but 
nothing  upon  which  to  base  sound  inferences  with  ref- 
erence either  to  the  distant  past  or  the  distant  future. 

Yet  the  circumstantial  evidence  discovered  by  care- 
ful investigation  compels  us  to  suppose  that  the  region 
has  undergone  great  changes  during  the  Post-Tertiary 
epoch.  There  is  conclusive  evidence,  that,  coincident 
with  the  formation  of  great  glaciers  upon  the  Wah- 
satch  Mountains,  the  rainfall  was  so  increased  and 
the  evaporation  so  diminished  over  the  area  that  the 
lake  swelled  beyond  its  present  barrier,  and  covered 
an  area  ten  times  that  of  the  present  lake,  and  in- 
creased in  depth  till  it  was  eighty  times  as  deep  as  it 
now  is;  that  is,  the  lake  swelled  in  proportions  till  it 
contained  eight  hundred  times  the  present  volume  of 
water,  covering  an  area  of  twenty  thousand  square 
miles, and  being  one  thousand  feet  deep. 

A  moment's  reflection  reveals  here  a  most  interesting 
condition  of  things.  The  surface  of  the  present  Great 
Salt  Lake  is  more  than  four  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea.  In  glacial  times,  when  the  depth  of  the  lake  was 
greatest,  the  surface  was  more  than  five  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea.  The  shore  lines  indicating  this  can  be 
easily  noted  all  around  upon  the  mountains  along  the 
sides  of  the  basin,  and  upon  those  which  rise  m  soli- 


28o  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

tude  from  its  central  portion.  We  have  thus  a  reser- 
voir, containing  four  thousand  cubic  miles  of  water» 
supported  at  an  elevation  of  between  four  and  five 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  Considered  even  in  re- 
spect to  its  weight  in  avoirdupois,  this  is  no  insignifi- 
cant element  in  its  effect  upon  the  equilibrium  of 
forces  which  maintains  the  stability  of  that  portion  of 
the  earth's  crust. 

But  more  interesting  still  is  the  preparation  which 
had  been  slowly  going  on  for  a  catastrophe  when  this 
water  should  burst  the  barriers  which  at  first  separ- 
ated it  from  the  peaceful  Snake  River  Valley  on  the 
north.  The  barrier  between  this  elevated  and  increas- 
ing body  of  water,  known  now  as  Lake  Bonneville, 
and  the  Snake  River  Valley  is  a  mountain  elevation, 
of  moderate  dimensions,  with  its  lowest  pass  at  Red 
Rock  between  Cache  Valley  on  the  south  and  the  Port 
Neuf  River  Valley  on  the  north,  w^hich  joins  the. Snake 
River  plain  at  Pocatello.  Up  to  625  feet  above  the 
present  level  of  Salt  Lake,  the  barrier  at  this  pass  is 
a  ledge  of  limestone  rock,  forming  an  invincible  dam ; 
but  the  upper  375  feet  of  it  was  nothing  but  a  dirt 
dam,  consisting  of  the  delta  of  a  mountain  stream 
coming  in  from  the  east.  Slowly  this  stream  had 
brought  in  the  wash  of  the  eastern  hills,  and  built  up 
its  broad  delta  upon  the  limestone  foundation.    When, 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of    the  Pacific  Coast     281 

at  Icntith,  the  waters  of  Tvake  Bonneville  rose  above 
the  level  of  the  limestone  ledge,  and  finally  approached 
the  very  summit  of  the  pass,  it  would  have  taken  no 
prophet's  eye  to  foresee  a  catastrophe  of  the  first  order; 
for  this  dirt  dam,  though  built  by  nature,  possessed 
every  element  of  insecurity  which  belongs  to  artificial 
products  of  the  same  kind.  Just  so  soon,  therefore,  as 
the  water  rose  high  enough  to  run  over  the  pass  into 
the  Port  Neuf  River,  it  began  to  enlarge  a  channel 
for  itself,  which  would  increase  in  arithmetical  ratio 
until  the  whole  barrier  had  given  away,  when  twenty 
thousand  square  miles  of  water  375  feet  deep  w^ould 
begin  to  empty  itself  through  the  Port  Neuf  Valley 
into  the  Snake  River  with  all  the  speed  which  it  was 
possible  for  it  to  acquire. 

In  tracing  out  the  results  of  this  catastrophe,  Mr. 
G.  K.  Gilbert  found  abundant  evidence  in  the  Port 
Neuf  Valley  of  the  occurrence  of  the  debacle  which 
he  perceived  must  have  passed  through  it.  Where  the 
valley  is  a  mile  in  width,  and  descends  thirteen  feet  to 
the  mile,  there  was  evidence  of  the  former  existence  of 
a  stream  filling  it  from  side  to  side  to  a'  depth  of  from 
seven  to  twenty  feet,  and  rushing  with  such  force  as 
to  sweep  bowlders  of  great  size  along  the  bottom. 
Nor  was  this  debacle  the  mere  passing  wonder  of  a 
day;  but,  by  a  simple  mathematical  calculation,   Mr. 


282  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Gilbert  arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  a  stream  the  size 
of  Niagara  would  be  occupied  for  twenty-five  years 
in  drawing  off  the  upper  375  feet  of  the  lake  which 
was  pouring  into  it.  Here,  therefore,  we  have  a  most 
startling  catastrophe  resulting  from  a  slowly  accumu- 
lating cause.  For  thousands  of  years  the  Port  Neuf 
was  an  insignificant  stream,  and  everything  seemed 
to  remain  as  it  was.  Then  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
it  became  a  rushing,  mighty  torrent,  in  whose  way 
nothing  could  stand;  while  now  again  for  thousands 
of  years  the  quiet  of  ancient  times  has  rested  on  the 
place. 

Where  this  debacle  entered  the  Snake  River  Val- 
ley, it  is  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  distant 
from  Nampa,  and  about  tw^o  thousand  feet  higher;  so 
that  there  would  have  been  a  descent  of  about  eight 
feet  to  the  mile.  Just  how  it  would  have  worked  its 
way  across  the  plain  to  these  lower  levels,  it  is  per- 
haps impossible  to  tell,  on  account  of  the  subsequent 
disturbances  of  the  surface  which  have  been  produced 
by  the  overflow  of  lava.  But  the  bare  statement  of 
the  above  facts  is  sufficient  to  impress  us  with  the  im- 
possibility of  depending  upon  present  rates  of  change 
in  the  valley  as  a  standard  for  those  that  were  taking 
place  at  the  time  that  the  peaceful  village  of  ancient 
Nampa  was  overwhelmed  and  buried  first  by  a  flood 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  tin-  Pacific  Coast     283 

and  then  by  a  vast  stream  of  red-hot  lava,  v/hich  has 
scaled  it  up  and  preserved  it  until  the  present  time. 

On  passing  to  the  fianks  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  in 
California,  where  the  relics  of  man  have  been  found 
beneath  lava  deposits  approximately  corresponding  in 
date  with  those  in  the  Snake  River  Valley,  we  find  a 
somewhat  analogous  condition  of  things.  The  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains  were  mainly  uplifted  during  the 
end  of  the  Tertiary  and  the  beginning  of  the  Glacial 
epoch  on  the  western  coast.  This  uplift  was  connected 
with  vast  eruptions  of  lava,  which  took  place  before 
the  erosion  consequent  upon  the  increased  elevation  of 
the  mountain  axis  had  proceeded  to  a  very  great  ex- 
tent, and  the  lava  poured  down  the  shallow  valleys, 
burying  up  and  protecting  everything  beneath  It,  in- 
cluding the  works  and  remains  of  man.  By  pretty 
general  consent  the  glaciation  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  is 
believed  to  have  continued  to  a  much  later  period, 
and  perhaps  to  have  begun  at  a  much  later  period, 
than  that  of  the  eastern  part  of  America.  The  steep 
gradient  of  the  river  channels  on  the  western  flanks  of 
these  mountains,  connected  with  the  increased  volume 
of  the  streams  during  the  Glacial  epoch,  would  pro- 
vide for  an  enormous  acceleration  in  the  rate  of  ero- 
sion in  all  those  channels;  so  that,  even  if  we  suppose 


284  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  ^Man 

the  whole  of  the  gorge  occupied  by  such  streams  as 
the  Stanislaus,  the  Tuolumne,  and  the  Merced  to 
have  been  eroded  since  the  lava  flow,  the  period  may 
not  have  been  so  enormously  long  as  might  at  first  be 
supposed. 

Many  things,  however,  indicate  that  much  of  the 
erosion  of  the  present  streams  may  have  been  pro- 
duced before  the  eruptions  of  lava  took  place.  If  it 
is  asked,  how  this  can  be,  when  the  present  Stanislaus 
cuts  directly  across  the  old  valley,  which  was  filled  by 
the  Table  Mountain  lava  flow,  the  answer  would  be, 
that  it  seems  by  no  means  impossible  that  at  some 
places  the  lava  followed  not  the  valley  then  occupied 
by  the  water  course,  but  a  deserted  valley  which  had 
been  left  at  a  higher  level  in  the  general  progress  of 
erosion. 

The  possibility  of  such  a  procedure  is  shown  by  the 
report  by  Mr.  Diller  ^  upon  a  remarkable  cinder  cone 
and  lava  field  in  the  vicinity  of  Lassen  Peak,  in 
Northern  California.  From  various  data,  Mr.  Diller 
is  able  to  show  that  this  lava  field,  which  covers  about 
two  square  miles,  is  the  product  of  an  eruption  which 
has  occurred  within  the  last  two  hundred  years;  the 
flow  of  lava,  however,  has  not  proceeded  In  a  straight 
line  from  the  orifice,  but  has  turned  In  almost  a  com- 
plete circle,  —  not  because  the  depression  lay  In  that 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     285 

direction,  but  because  cooled  masses  of  lava  at  the 
front  dammed  up  its  course,  so  that,  upon  a  renewal 
of  the  Hood,  it  was  easier  to  break  through  the  side 
than  through  the  front.  Thus  it  would  seem  that  in 
the  vicinity  of  Murphy's  and  Angel's  camp,  where  the 
Calaveras  skull  was  found,  there  was  such  an  accu- 
mulation of  rather  loose  volcanic  ash  as  might  have 
served  to  divert  the  basalt  flow  to  the  left,  and  car- 
ried it  down  by  Sonora  over  a  channel  that  was  then 
independent  of  the  Stanislaus.  Thus  it  is  by  no  means 
improbable  that  the  age  of  Table  Mountain,  as  esti- 
mated by  the  erosion  subsequent  to  its  formation,  may 
be  greatly  reduced  both  by  the  probable  intensification 
of  the  erosive  agencies  during  the  Glacial  epoch  and 
by  a  considerable  reduction  of  the  known  amount  of 
erosion  which  has  taken  place.  Still,  w^ith  all  this  re- 
duction, it  is  probable  that  we  have  in  these  relics  of 
man  upon  the  Pacific  coast  some  of  the  oldest  that 
have  yet  been  found. 

A  vivid  impression  of  the  antiquity  of  this  period 
is  given  by  observing  the  complete  change  which  has 
taken  place  in  California  in  the  plants  and  animals  of 
the  region  since  man  first  began  to  occupy  it.  The 
existing  forests  of  the  Pacific  slope  consist  almost  en- 
tirely of  coniferous  trees.  The  deciduous,  or  hard- 
wood,  trees  fnmiliar  on  the  Atlantic  coast  are  either 


286  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

entirely  absent  from  the  Pacific  side  of  the  continent, 
or  are  of  smaller  siz.e  and  poorer  quality.  The  Pacific 
coast  has  indeed  maples,  ashes,  poplars,  walnuts,  oaks, 
and  in  Washington,  birches,  but  they  all  compare  un- 
favorably with  their  brethren  upon  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  are  so  inferior  in  economic  value,  that,  as  Pro- 
fessor Gray  said,  "  a  passable  wagon  wheel  cannot  be 
made  of  California  wood,  nor  a  really  good  one  in 
Oregon."  But  California  has,  at  the  present  time,  no 
birch,  beech,  elm,  holly,  gum  tree,  magnolia,  catalpa, 
mulberry,  linden,  or  hickory.  The  flanks  of  the 
Sierra  above  the  altitude  of  two  thousand  feet  are 
covered  with  majestic  but  monotonous  forests  of  pine, 
cedar,  spruce.  Sequoia  g'lgantea,  and  tamarack,  inter- 
spersed in  the  lower  portions  with  inferior  kinds  of 
black  oak  and  the  diminutive  California  buckeye  and 
manzanita. 

But  from  the  vegetable  remains  found  associated 
with  traces  of  man  in  the  deposits  under  Tabic  Moun- 
tain it  would  appear  that,  at  the  time  of  that  volcanic 
outflow,  there  were  no  coniferous  trees  on  the  flanks 
of  the  Sierra,  whereas  many  of  the  hardwood  trees 
above  mentioned  as  now  peculiar  to  the  Atlantic  States 
flourished  there  in  abundance.  Primeval  man  in  Cal- 
ifornia found  shelter  in  forests  very  similar  to  those 
which,  on  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  cov- 


Man  (uid  Lai'a  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     287 

cred  the  whole  eastern  part  of  the  continent.  The 
ehii,  the  beech,  the  willow,  the  poplar,  the  sycamore, 
the  <j;um  tree,  the  maj^nolia,  and  maple  spread  for  him 
their  protecting  branches,  while  the  beech  tree,  as  well 
as  the  oak  and  the  fig,  added  its  fruit  to  his  limited 
stock  of  vegetable  food. 

As  already  remarked  the  animal  companions  of  man 
upon  the  Pacific  coast  were  also,  in  this  early  period, 
as  different  from  the  existing  species  as  were  the 
plants.  From  the  remains  of  animals  found  associated 
with  man  in  the  deposits  beneath  Table  Mountain, 
or  others  equally  old,  we  find  that  he  was  then  as 
familiar  with  the  mastodon  and  the  unwieldly  form 
and  the  long,  curved  tusks  of  the  mammoth  as  the  mod- 
ern inhabitant  of  India  or  Africa  now  is  with  the 
reduced  dimensions  of  the  elephant;  cartloads  of  their 
fossil  bones  have  been  collected  from  the  gold-bearing 
gravels,  as  might  well  be  inferred  from  Truthful 
James's  account  of  the  Row  upon  the  Stanislow.  The 
llama,  an  ally  to  the  camel,  now  confined  to  South 
America,  was  another  companion  of  man  in  Cali- 
fornia at  that  time.  The  rhinoceros  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  have  been  his  companion,  but  from  the  remains 
discovered  it  could  have  been  no  unusual  event  for  the 
hunter  in  those  days  to  have  encountered  this  animal 
in  his  haunts.     Those  were  times,  too,  when  beggars 


288  Oricr'tn  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

could  have  ridden  on  horseback,  had  they  been  able  td 
domesticate  any  one  of  the  several  species  which  then 
abounded  in  the  region.  Extinct  gigantic  species  of 
the  cow^  and  deer  are  also  proved,  by  their  remains,  to 
have  been  then  living  in  companionship  with  man; 
while,  as  is  to  be  expected,  the  wolf  was  present  to 
worry  and  trouble  him. 

A  closing  remark  will  be  in  place  concerning  the 
bearing  of  the  recent  discoveries  upon  the  Pacific  coast, 
where  both  glacial  and  post-glacial  man  eflEected  his 
entrance  upon  the  continent,  upon  theories  as  to  the 
original  condition  and  origin  of  the  human  race.  So 
far,  indeed,  the  evidences  upon  the  western  part  of  the 
continent  do  not  indicate,  according  to  modern  stand- 
ards, a  high  degree  of  civilization.  There  is  as  yet 
no  evidence  that  man  in  America  had  risen  above  the 
culture  of  the  stone  age.  But  the  artistic  ability 
shown  in  the  graceful  lines  and  symmetrical  form  of 
the  Nampa  figurine,  like  those  of  the  Venus  impudica, 
indicates  a  caliber  of  mind  no  whit  behind  that  of  the 
average  man  of  the  present  time.  The  average  man 
now  is  incapable  of  producing  such  works  of  art. 
But,  as  Professor  Putnam  has  somewhere  observed, 
the  imitation  of  natural  forms  In  objective  representa- 
tions Is  one  of  the  earliest  demonstrations  of  the  great 
natural  capacity  of  undeveloped  man. 


Man  and  Lava  Beds  of  the  Pacific  Coast     289 

And  so  we  have  from  this  unexpected  quarter  of 
the  globe  some  of  the  most  important  of  all  facts  bear- 
ing upon  the  origin  of  the  human  species.  Our  earli- 
est knowledge  of  man  is  of  a  being  fully  formed  and 
in  possession  of  all  the  faculties  of  his  kind.  So  far 
no  evidence  has  appeared  of  any  transitional  stage  be- 
tween the  ape  and  the  man.  From  the  indications 
with  reference  to  the  lines  of  migration  in  this  coun- 
try it  would  seem  that  there  was  a  process  of  degra- 
dation in  the  tribes  that  reached  the  outskirts  of  the 
continent.  The  more  civilized  races  of  Idaho,  Mexico, 
and  Peru,  are  not  a  development  from  the  ruder  tribes 
of  the  Atlantic  coast,  but  the  reverse.  It  seems  more 
likely  that  the  tribes  of  the  Atlantic  were,  in  glacial 
as  in  post-glacial  time,  the  degenerate  descendants  of 
those  on  the  Pacific  slope. 


290  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 


CHAPTER  IX 

REMAINS  OF  GLACIAL  MAN  IN  EUROPE 

In  Europe  the  evidence  of  glacial  man  is  not  quite 
so  clear  as  in  America ;  for  there  drainage  to  the  south 
was  not  so  free  as  it  was  in  America,  except  possibly 
over  portions  of  Russia.  For,  the  principal  localities 
in  Europe  in  which  prehistoric  human  relics  have  been 
found,  lie  outside  of  the  boundary  of  the  glaciated  re- 
gion. The  earliest,  and  in  some  respects  the  most 
important,  of  these  were  in  France  at  Amiens  and  at 
Abbeville  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme,  and  Chelles,  on 
one  of  the  eastern  tributaries  of  the  Seine,  not  far 
from  Paris.  ^  While  it  is  not  supposed  that  glacial 
ice  ever  covered  this  portion  of  France,  the  deposits 
in  these  valleys  are  connected  with  the  Glacial  epoch 
by  the  indications  in  them  that  there  was  an  excessive 
amount  of  floating  ice  present  in  the  streams  when  the 
gravel  was  deposited,  and  by  other  indications  of  a 
much  colder  climate  than  exists  in  that  region  at  the 
present  time.  The  strata  of  moderately  fine  gravel 
which  compose  the  terraces,  occasionally  contain  angu- 
lar blocks  of  stone  two  or  three  feet  in  diameter,  which 
could  have  been  carried  only  by  large  cakes  of  floating 


Rf mains  of  Clac'ud  Man   in  F.uropc  29 1 

ice;  while  the  bones  found  interstratiiied  are  those 
of  animals  which  are  otherwise  known  to  have  existed 
during  the  Glacial  epoch,  but  to  have  become  extinct 
soon  after  its  close. 

A  great  sensation  was  produced  when  in  185Q  the 
leading  geologists  in  France  and  England  gave  their 
adhesion  to  the  theory  that  certain  flint  implements 
found  in  the  high-level  river  gravels  of  Northern 
France  were  of  glacial  age.  The  discovery  of  such 
implements,  however,  had  been  reported  as  early  a,s 
1842,  by  Boucher  de  Perthes,  a  physician  residing  at 
Abbeville  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Somme.  Soon 
after,  Dr.  Rigillout  of  Amiens,  forty  miles  farther  up 
the  river,  having  visited  Abbeville  and  seen  the  dis- 
coveries there,  began  to  find  flint  implements  in  simi- 
lar situations  in  the  high-level  gravels  near  his  home. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  years  he  had  found  several  hun- 
dred specimens.  Still  the  scientific  world  was  incredu- 
lous until  1855,  when  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Sir  Joseph 
Prestwich,  Sir  John  Evans,  MM.  Pouchet  and  Gau- 
dry  visited  the  place  and  accepted  the  genuineness  of 
the  discoveries.  Since  that  time  the  number  of  imple- 
ments discovered  has  grown  to  enormous  proportions 
—  more  than  four  thousand  having  been  reported  in 
1890.  For  the  last  few  years  the  collections  have 
principally  been  made  by  M.   Commont,  principal  of 


ag-'?  Orij^in  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  schools  of  Amiens,  whose  publications  upon  the 
subject  are  of  the  highest  value.  As  excavations  are 
in  progress  near  his  own  door,  he  is  able  to  classify 
them  into  lower  and  higher  according  to  their  occur- 
rence in  different  elevations  of  the  bank,  and  to  com- 
pare their  relative  stage  of  culture.  The  implements 
are  all  of  chipped  flint,  made  from  nodules,  which  oc- 
cur abundantly  in  the  gravel.  The  ultimate  origin  of 
the  nodules  is  the  chalk  which  everywhere  underlies 
the  soil.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  implements 
are  the  work  of  man.  The  age  of  the  gravels,  how^- 
ever,  will  demand  closer  attention. 

At  the  present  time,  the  river  Somme  is  a  small 
stream,  flowing  leisurely  in  a  valley  half  a  mile  wide,  and 
winding  from  side  to  side  through  a  low  flood  plain. 
But  on  the  margin  of  the  trough,  at  Amiens  and  Ab- 
beville, there  are  accumulations  of  gravel,  marking 
a  period  of  floods  out  of  all  proportion  to  anything 
that  can  now  occur.  These  accumulations  run  up  to 
a  height  of  ninety  feet  or  more.  The  manner  of  their 
formation,  however,  is  something  of  a  question.  In 
the  opinion  of  the  early  investigators  the  bottom  of 
the  valley  was  nearly  at  the  level  of  the  upper  gravel 
at  the  beginning  of  the  period  of  greater  precipitation 
which  accompanied  the  glacial  conditions  approaching 
from  the  north,  while  at  the  same  time  the  gradient 


Ri//i(iins  of   Gldc'uil  Man  In  Europe  293 

of  the  river  was  somewhat  reduced  by  a  depression  of 
land  about  the  headwaters  of  the  stream.  Between 
that  time  and  the  return  of  a  warmer  climate  and  the 
establishment  of  present  conditions,  they  supposed  the 
stream  to  have  gradually  eroded  its  trough  down  to 
the  present  level.  This  would  of  course  imply  an 
enormous  lapse  of  time.- 

But  closer  examination  of  the  terraces  seems  to 
show  that  they  are  not  remnants  of  continuous  strata 
of  gravel  reaching  from  side  to  side  of  the  trough, 
but  that  they  arc  accumulations  of  material  deposited 
as  "  fans"  during  the" period  of  excessive  precipitation 
which  characterized  the  Glacial  epoch,  and  when  per- 
haps the  trough  was  occupied  by  stagnant  ice,  making 
them  analogous  to  esker  terraces,   described   later    (p. 

308). 

The  facts  which  more  than  any  others  delayed  the 
acceptance  of  the  genuineness  of  these  discoveries  at 
Amiens  and  Abbeville  were  that  the  implements  were 
associated  in  the  gravel  with  the  bones  of  numerous 
extinct  animals  which  had  been  supposed  to  belong  to 
a  geological  age  preceding  the  advent  of  man.  Among 
the  unfamiliar  animals  present  with  man  on  the  banks 
of  the  Somme  at  that  time  were  the  mammoth,  the 
woolly  rhinoceros,  the  reindeer,  and  the  hippopotamus, 
all  of  whose  bones  are  found  in  the  gravels  of  Amiens 


u      O 


R('//i(ii/is  of  GLuidl  Man  in  Europe 


295 


alono;s{de  of  human  implements.  Of  these  the  mam- 
moth and  the  woolly  rhinoceros  have  Ions;  been  ex- 
tinct, while  tlu'  reindeer  has  retired  to  regions  far  to 
the  north,  and  the  hippopotamus  to  the  lagoons  of 
Africa. 

Similar  discoveries  of  flint  implements  in  gravel  de- 
posits of  corresponding 
character  and  age  were 
soon  reported  from  many 
other  quarters,  especially 
at  Chelles,  on  one  of  the 
eastern  branches  of  the 
Seine,  near  Paris.  From 
the  number  and  perfection 
of  the  specimens  found 
there,  a  type  of  imple- 
ments has  •  been  named 
"Chellean." 
Chellean   boucher.      (Sollas.) 

In  England,  also,  numerous  discoveries  of  similar 
character  were  made  soon  after.  In  the  Thames  we 
have  a  river  whose  headwaters,  if  not  in  the  glaciated 
region,  are  so  closely  adjoining  it  that  there  was  an 
overflow  of  glacial  floods  into  it.  For,  as  has  been 
shown  by  Dr.  F.  W.  Harmer,''  the  Scandinavian  ice 
advancing    over    the    eastern    coast    of    England,    ob- 


296  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

structed  the  drainage  of  the  Ouse  and  turned  it  into 
the  headwaters  of  the  Thames,  thus  providing  the 
conditions  implied  by  the  extensive  gravel  terraces 
which  flank  all  its  lower  reaches.  A  considerable  por- 
tion of  London  is  built  upon  the  terrace,  especially 
that  which  lies  near  the  British  Museum.  This,  ac- 
cording to  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  is  from  one  to  two 
miles  wide,  and  traceable  for  a  distance  of  fifty  miles. 
The  gravel  varies  from  five  to  fifteen  feet  in  thick- 
ness. 

As  long  ago  as  171 5  a  palaeolithic  implement  was 
discovered  by  Mr.  Conners  in  a  gravel  pit  excavated 
at  Black  Mary's,  near  Gray's  Inn  Lane,  London. 
This  can  now  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum,  where 
it  continues  to  testify  to  the  identity  of  the  races  liv- 
ing in  France,  England,  and  America  during  glacial 
times.  As  in  France  so  in  England  the  bones  of  an 
extinct  species  of  elephant  were  everywhere  associated 
with  the  remains  of  glacial  man. 

At  Biddenham,  near  Bedford  in  the  valley  of  the 
Ouse,  numerous  well-developed  palasolithic  implements 
were  found  in  the  gravel  terrace  which  borders  the 
valley,  and  in  close  connection  with  them  bones  of  the 
elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  hippopotamus.  The  valley 
is  here  two  miles  wide  and  the  gravel  terrace  reaches 
the  height  of  ninety  feet.     The  terrace  in  which  the 


Remains  of  Gbicial  Man   in   Europe  297 

discoveries  were  made,  however,  was  only  tliirty   feet 
above  the  banks  of  the  present  stream. 

A  most  remarkable  discovery  of  implements  of  this 
age  was  made  by  Mr.  John  Frere  in  1801  at  Hoxne, 
near  Diss,  on  the  Waveney  River  in  Suffolk  County. 
So  numerous  were  they  that  the  "  workmen  emptied 
baskets  of  them  into  the  ruts  of  the  adjoining  road  be- 
fore becoming  aware  of  their  value."  As  many  as 
five  or  six  to  the  square  yard  are  said  to  have  been 
found. 

Other  localities  where  similar  discoveries  have  been 
made  in  England,  are  the  valley  of  the  Wey;  near 
Guilford;  near  Whitstable  in  Kent;  near  Thetford 
and  Bury-St.  Edmunds  in  Suffolk  County;  near  Salis- 
bur}'  in  Wiltshire  County;  and  on  the  borders  of  the 
Solent  near  Southampton. 

More  recently  specially  important  discoveries  have 
been  reported  of  human  remains  at  Galley  Hill,  in 
the  valley  of  the  Thames,  and  at  Ipswich  on  the  east 
coast. 

The  Galley  Hill  remains  consist  of  a  nearly  com- 
plete skeleton,  found  by  Messrs.  Elliott  and  Matthew 
Heys  in  1888.  The  skeleton  w^as  said  to  have  been 
in  situ,  at  a  depth  of  more  than  eight  feet,  in  Pleis- 
tocene high-level  river  drift,  which  there  rises  from 
ninetv  to  one  hundred  feet  above  the  Thames. 


298  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

The  Galley  Hill  deposits  show  about  eight  feet  of 
gravel  and  sand  at  the  surface,  and  underneath  a 
clay  deposit  two  or  three  feet  thick.  The  skeleton  was 
found  In  the  clay  deposit.  This  discovery  assumes 
special  Importance  from  the  fact  that  it  furnishes  the 
first  skull  which  had  been  found  actually  In  Pleisto- 
cene river  gravels  anywhere  in  England,  or  indeed, 
anywhere  in  Europe.  But  more  than  all,  it  is  inter- 
esting from  the  fact  that  the  skull  is  closely  related 
to  that  of  the  modern  European.  It  is  dolichocephalic 
(long-headed)  and  has  a  capacity  of  1,360  cubic  cen- 
timeters, which  is  a  good  average  for  one  of  his 
stature.  The  cranial  capacity  of  a  number  of  dis- 
tinguished modern  scholars  and  statesmen  is  only 
slightly  above  this,  Leibnitz's  brain  having  a  capacity 
of  only  1,422  cubic  centimeters,  while  that  of  Gam- 
betta  was  still  less."^ 

The  Ipswich  discovery  was  made  October  6,  191 1, 
by  Mr.  J.  Reid  Moir,  who  on  that  day  was  notified 
by  Messrs.  Bolton  and  Laughlln,  local  brickmakers, 
that  one  of  their  workmen  while  removing  surface 
clay  to  reach  the  underlying  gravel  had  encountered 
human  bones.  After  the  bones  had  been  carefully 
removed  and  preserved,  together  with  the  matrix  in 
which  they  were  encased,  three  eminent  geologists, 
Dr.  J.  E.  Marr,  F.R.S.,  Mr.  W.  Whitaker,  F.R.S., 


Rrniains   of   (ihtcidl  Man   in    Europe  299 

and  Mr.  George  Slater,  F.Cj.S.,  were  called  in  to  ex- 
amine the  section.  According  to  their  report  the 
skeleton  was  found  four  and  one-half  feet  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  chalky  bowlder  clay,  which  is  spread 
over  East  Anglia.  The  clay  above  the  skeleton  ap- 
peared in  every  respect  the  same  as  that  which  ex- 
tended for  some  distance  on  each  side  of  it,  while  the 
calcareous  band  underlay  the  skeleton  and  likewise 
extended  indefinitely  on  either  side.  It  w^as  embedded 
partly  in  glacial  sand,  showing  clear  lines  of  stratifi-* 
cation  conformable  with  that  underlying  it,  and 
partly  in  the  bowlder  clay.  From  this  it  would  seem 
that  there  could  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the 
skeleton  was  in  the  original  deposit  and  was  not  the 
result  of  an  interment.  It  is  hardly  possible  that  these 
various  deposits  should  not  show  signs  of  disturbance 
if  there  had  been  a  burial,  however  long  ago.  The 
skeleton  is  that  of  a  man  about  five  feet  ten  inches  in 
height.  Judging  from  the  skull  fragments  and  the 
brain  cast,  Dr.  Keith  concludes  that  the  head  did  not 
differ  essentially  from  that  of  modern   Europeans.""' 

On  the  Continent  the  remains  of  River  Drift  man 
have  been  reported  in  three  important  localities  besides 
the  valle\s  of  the  Somme  and  the  Seine,  namely  at 
Helin,  in  the  valley  of  the  T>ys.   Belgium;  at   Mauer, 


300  Origin  and  Antiqinty  of  Man 

in  the  vallej'  of  the  Neckar,  a  few  miles  southeast  of 
Heidelberg,  Germany:  and  at  Kiev  on  the  Dneiper 
in  Southern  Russia.  But  as  all  these  localities  are 
outside  of  the  glaciated  region  except  the  last,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  their  gravel  deposits  took  place  under 
conditions  very  different  from  that  of  those  which  line 
the  south  flovv'ing  streams  emerging  from  the  glaciated 
area  in  North  America.  It  will  be  best,  therefore,  at 
this  point  to  enter  into  the  particulars  which  have 
'a  bearing  upon  the  age  of  the  deposits.  This  is  all 
the  more  important  from  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
earlier  investigators  fell  into  serious  error  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  facts  and  so  became  instrumental 
in  propagating  extremely  exaggerated  estimates  of  the 
age  of  the  human  relics  in  question. 

According  to  the  theory  of  these  early  interpreters, 
as  intimated  above,  the  high-level  gravel  deposits  in 
the  valley  of  the  Somme  were  laid  down  when  the 
river  was  flowing  on  a  bottom  nearly  a  hundred  feet 
higher  than  now,  and  the  erosion  of  the  lower  portion 
of  the  valley  has  been  accomplished  during  the  Pleis- 
tocene (Glacial)  epoch.  As  the  bed  of  the  Somme 
is  now  more  tlian  a  hundred  feet  below  the  level  of 
some  of  these  implement-bearing  gravels  and  the 
trough  is  about  half  a  mile  wide,  this  theory  would 
imply    an    enormous    lapse    of    time    or    an    incredible 


Rcnuiiiis  of  Gldcidl  Man  in  Europe  30 1 

activity  of  the  crodiniz;  power  of  the  stream.  But 
later  more  extended  and  careful  investigations  have 
led  to  an  entirely  different  interpretation  of  these  river 
troughs  and  their  bordering  gravel  deposits.  Accord- 
ing to  present  Ijght  the  rock  erosion  of  the  streams 
in  Great  Ih'itain  and  Northern  and  Western  Europe 
was  completed  in  preglacial  time,  when  in  Europe  as 
in  America  there  was  an  extensive  continental  eleva- 
tion of  the  land. 

Indeed,  a  map  of  Europe  at  the  close  of  the  Ter- 
tiary period  would  scarcely  be  recognized  at  the 
present  time.  Ample  evidence  has  been  given  in  the 
sixth  chapter  that  Europe  shared  in  the  general  ele- 
vation of  land  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  preceding 
the  Glacial  epoch.  But  geologists  are  not  altogether 
agreed  as  to  the  extent  of  this  elevation.  Dr.  War- 
ren L  pham,"  apparently  with  the  best  of  evidence, 
supposes  the  preglacial  land  elevation  of  Northern 
Europe  to  have  been  from  tw^elve  to  fifteen  hundred 
feet.  That  the  elevation  was  half  that  amount  is 
generally  accepted.  Even  this  would  be  sufficient  to 
lay  bare  the  whole  of  the  German  Ocean  (furnishing 
pasture  land  for  the  herds  of  elephants  whose  bones 
are  dredged  up  from  the  present  bottom)  and  to  add 
to  the  continent  a  border  of  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
miles    in    width    to    the    west    of    Spain,    France,    and 


Geography  of  Northwestern  Europe  in  late  Pleistocene  ag:e. 


Rinui'nis  fjf  Gldcial  Man  in   Europe  ^o^ 

Ireland.  —  funiishin;j;  a  passaijeway  for  the  African 
Maninialia  to  rove  as  far  north  as  the  British  Isles. 
Such  an  elevation  would  obliterate  the  Irish  Sea  and 
the  Straits  of  Dover,  as  well  as  the  German  Ocean. 

Soundings    permit    us    to    trace    across    these    sub- 
merged  plains   the  courses   of  the   great   rivers  which 
then    carried    off    their    drainage    to    the    ocean.     The 
Rhine  proceeded  upon  its  majestic  way  northward  to 
the   Arctic    Sea,    being    augmented    by    the    Elbe,    the 
Thames,   and   several   other  tributary  streams,   includ- 
ing one  of  great  size   from  the  region  of  the  Baltic. 
The  Seine  conveyed  the  drainage  of  Northern  France 
and  Southern  England  far  out  to  the  westward  of  the 
English  Channel  and  debouched  through  a  deep  gorge 
into   the   abyss   of  the  Atlantic,   a   hundred   miles  be- 
yond   the   furthest   points   of   Brittany   and    Cornw^all. 
At  the  same  time  the  drainage  from  both  sides  of  the 
Irish    Sea.    joined    by    that    of    the    Bristol    Channel, 
flowed  parallel  with  the  preceding  and  eroded  a  deep 
gorge  through   the   border  of  the   continental   shelf   a 
hundred  miles  southwest  of  Cape  Clear. 

Farther  <outh.  a  ^vo^derful  submerged  river  course 
is  traced  across  the  continental  shelf,  westward  from 
Cap  Breton,  running  nearly  parallel  with  the  north- 
west sh<.re  of  Spain.  This  seems  to  be  a  continuance 
of  the   river  Adour.      The   depression   has   been   accu- 


304  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

rately  traced  by  soundings  for  seventy  miles.  An  even 
more  remarkable  submerged  channel  across  this  shelf 
can  be  traced  westward  from  the  river  Congo.' 

This  continental  uplift  produced  significant  results 
in  the  basin  of  the  Mediterranean,  separating  it  into 
two  inland  seas,  obliterating  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar 
and  exposing  a  broad  isthmus  stretching  from  Tunis 
across  Sicily  to  the  southern  point  of  Italy,  thus  fur- 
nishing an  easy  passage  for  the  animals  of  Africa  to 
reach  the  southern  shores  of  Europe  and,  ranging 
northward  around  the  border  of  Spain,  to  pass  with 
man  into  the  fertile  plains  of  France  and  Belgium 
and  thence  into  the  equally  fertile  pasture  lands  of 
Southern  England  and  of  the  elevated  rolling  prairie 
lands  extending  across  the  bottom  of  the  German 
Ocean. 

It  was  during  this  slow  continental  elevation,  con- 
tinuing through  the  latter  half  of  the  Tertiary  period, 
that  the  Thames,  the  Somme,  the  Lys,  the  Seine,  and 
the  Neckar  eroded  the  rock  gorges  on  whose  borders 
occur  the  gravel  deposits  containing  the  oldest  known 
relics  of  man  in  Europe.  In  this  they  are  all  in  per- 
fect analogy  with  the  streams  in  the  glaciated  area  of 
the  United  States.  But,  as  already  remarked,  the  gravel 
accumulations  in  the  two  countries  took  place  under 
different  conditions.     In  Southern  England,  Northern 


Ri/'uii/is  of  Cldi'hd  Man   in   Eiiropc  305 

France,  and  Hel^iiini  there  was  no  active  glacial  ice, 
but  it  is  quite  possible,  it  not  indeed  probable,  that 
stagnant  ice  filled  the  valleys  and  had  much  influence 
in  determining  the  position  of  the  gravel  deposits.  At 
any  rate  it  is  pretty  certain  that  the  climatic  condi- 
tions which  sent  glacial  ice  southward  to  the  vicinity 
of  London,  and  which  enveloped  Sw^itzerland  and 
Northern  Italy  in  one  vast  covering  of  ice  thousands 
of  feet  in  thickness,  would  not  have  been  without  its 
effect  over  the  intervening  area;  for,  the  Glacial  epoch 
was  preeminently  one  of  widespread  increased  precipi- 
tation, as  well  as  of  lower  temperature.  Some,  indeed, 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  calling  it  the  *'  pluvial  " 
period.  This  great  increase  in  the  precipitation, 
coupled  with,  the  high  elevation,  furnishes  us  wnth 
the  adequate  cause  for  producing  the  peculiar  gravel 
deposits  whose  age  w^e  are  considering. 

In  all  these  instances  the  gravel  is  of  local  origin, 
that  is,  it  is  derived  from  the  rocks  w^hich  are  in  place 
in  the  drainage  basin  of  the  streams  mentioned  ;  while 
the  river  Somme,  at  Amiens,  is  joined  by  two  tribu- 
tary streams,  the  Noye  and  the  Arve,  —  all  three, 
flow^'ng  through  a  gently  rolling  country  two  or  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  present  level  of  the  river  at 
Amiens.  The  gravel  accumulation  so  prominent  at 
Amiens  does  not  follow  down  the  course  of  the  stream 


3o6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

in  distinct  terraces  bordering  the  trough,  as  is  the  case 
in  our  American  glacial  streams,  but  is  in  the  shape 
of  "  fans  "  deposited  b)^  the  several  streams  as  they 
reached  the  broader  preglacial  valley.  Nor  are  the 
streams  at  Amiens  wtU  defined  as  one  might  be  led 
to  suppose  from  the  earlier  descriptions,  Tylor,  La- 
driere,  and  others  ^  have  demonstrated  that  the 
Somme  gravel  and  sand  everywhere  has  a  gentle  slope 
from  the  sides  towards  the  center  of  the  valley,  pre- 
senting a  terrace  escarpment  only  vvhere  marginal 
parts  of  these  deposits  have  been  later  carried  away 
by  the  undermining  action  of  the  present  diminutive 
stream.  Throughout  this  gravel  there  are,  as  already 
remarked,  numerous  indications  that  the  streams  which 
deposited  it  were  at  times  gorged  with  floating  ice, 
bearing  rocks  of  considerable  size  which  were  depos- 
ited in  the  mass  without  having  suffered  appreciable 
trituration.  Over  all,  both  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme 
and  of  numerous  other  streams  in  the  region  exam- 
ined by  M.  Ladriere,  there  is  a  blanket  of  finer  ma- 
terial, extending  from  the  summit  to  the  bed  of  the 
stream,  which  has  accumulated  by  the  action  of  much 
gentler  agencies  than  those  which  deposited  the  gravel 
of  earlier  age.  Indeed,  Ladriere  believes  he  is  able  to 
discriminate  three  stages  in  the  accumulation,  mark- 
ing successive  amelioration  in  the  activity  of  the  agen- 


3o8  Ori^'m  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

cies  at  work  This  is  like  the  esker  terraces  observed 
in  America  which  were  formed  by  streams  of  w^ater 
held  in  place  by  a  barrier  of  ice  which  upon  melting 
left  high-level  gravel  deposits.    (See  p.  294.) 

At  Mauer  and  Helin  in  the  valleys  of  the  Lys  and 
of  a  tributary  of  the  Neckar  we  have  apparently  a 
simpler  problem.  Here  would  seem  to  have  been 
great  accumulations  of  gravel  at  the  beginning  of  the 
"  pluvial  "  period,  completely  filling  the  preglacial 
trough  for  a  considerable  distance,  corresponding  with 
those  of  American  rivers  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial 
epoch,  while  later  there  has  been  deep  erosion  by  the 
action  of  the  streams  when  reduced  to  approximately 
their  present  volume,  laying  bare  the  strata  in  w^hich 
remains  of  man  have  been  found. 

In  none  of  these  cases  do  w^e  have  any  but  the  most 
imperfect  means  of  making  estimates  concerning  the 
time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  deposition  of  the  im- 
plement-bearing gravel.  For  trustworthy  estimates  we 
arc  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  the  general  considera- 
tions bearing"  upon  the  date  of  the  Glacial  epoch. 

It  is  significant,  however,  that  the  implements  found 
in  these  gravels  are  of  a  type  that  everj^vhere  else  are 
characteristic  of  glacial  man ;  while  the  animal  re- 
mains associated  \\ith  the  gravels  are  those  which  are 
chrviacteristic  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  and  which,  in  the 


Rinifiins  of   Gldcial  Mdti   in   Kiiiopc  309 

case  of  man\    species,   became  extinct   during  or  soon 
after  its  close. 

The  discover\'  at  Mauer  is  of  special  importance 
since  it  is  that  of  a  human  jaw.  It  was  made  October 
21,  1907,  by  Professor  Schoetensack/'  according  to 
whom  the  specimen  represented  a  new  species  which  he 
named  Homo  he'idelbergens'is.  But  the  evidence  upon 
which  it  is  deemed  worthy  to  make  this  classification 
appears  to  be  slight;  for  though  the  absence  of  chin 
suggests  simian  characteristics  and  "  the  neck  constric- 
tion is  very  slight,  approaching  in  this  respect  the  an- 
thropoid form,  the  teeth  have  a  distinctly  hum.an 
stamp,  not  only  in  their  general  appearance,  but  also 
in  point  of  size  —  larger  than  the  average,  but  smaller 
than  In  exceptional  cases  to  be  found  among  the  Aus- 
tralians." The  jaw  occurred  beneath  eighty  feet  of 
stratified  sand  and  gravel  in  the  valley  of  the  ElsenZ; 
a  tributary  of  the  Neckar,  Vvdiich  joins  the  Rhine  at 
Heidelberg.  Of  the  probable  manner  and  period  of 
the  deposition  of  these  gravels  we  have  already  treated 
in  connection  with  the  deposits  in  the  valley  of  the 
Somme.  The  great  antiquity  of  the  skull  is  confirmed 
by  the  occurrence  in  these  gravels  at  Mauer  of  the 
bones  of  extinct  species  of  the  elephant,  rhinoceros, 
horse,  and  bear,  together  with  bones  of  deer,  bison, 
and  beaver,  which  now  are  found  farther  north. 


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Ri'f/iiiins  of  Glacial  Man  in  Europe  31  I 

At  Helin,  nepr  Spiennes,  on  the  river  Lys,  Bel- 
gium, M.  Rutot  reports  the  occurrence  of  numerous 
flaked  implements  made  from  flint  or  brown  chert, 
deeply  buried  in  Pleistocene  gravels.  The  implements 
are  mostly  scrapers  and  rude  knives,  with  some  ham- 
mer stones:  but  there  was  an  absence  of  anything 
which  had  the  appearance  of  weapons.  The  Lys,  like 
the  Somme,  flows  through  a  broad  valley,  the  floor  of 
which  is  from  three  to  five  hundred  feet  below  the  gen- 
eral level  of  the  country.  The  gravels  in  which  the 
implements  are  found  are  upon  the  side  of  the  valley, 
and  less  than  two  hundred  feet  above  it.  These  con- 
stitute what  Rutot  calls  the  fourth  terrace,  numbering 
from  the  top.  But  there  is  nothing  definite  to  indi- 
cate their  age.  Here,  again,  as  in  so  many  other 
cases,  the  antiquity  of  man  is  dependent  upon  our  in- 
terpretation of  the  general  evidence  bearing  on  the 
chronology  of  the  Glacial  epoch  and  upon  our  gen- 
eral theories  concerning  the  progress  of  evolutionary 
forces  in  the  production  of  the  changes  which  mark 
the  development  both  of  animals  and  man.^^ 

The  discovery  at  Kiev,  on  the  Dnieper,  in  Russia, 
was  made  in  1893  by  Professor  P.  Armaschevsky.  At 
this  place  the  summit  of  the  high  bordering  bluff  is 
350  feet  above  the  river.  The  upper  fifty-three  feet 
of  the  bluf?  consists  of  typical  loess,  breaking  of?  in 


312  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

perpendicular  fractures.  Beneath  this  bod}'  of  loess 
and  resting  on  the  original  glacial  deposit  containing 
Scandinavian  pebbles  there  were  found  "  instruments 
fashioned  from  pieces  of  flint,  larger  or  smaller  knives, 
scrapers  and  points  with  all  the  characteristic  indica- 
tions of  the  work  of  man's  hand.  The  nuclei  or  cores 
of  flint,  from  which  fragments  have  been  detached, 
were  so  numerous  that  they  had  accumulated  in  heaps. 
The  flint  implements  w^ere  accompanied  by  a  large 
quantity  of  mammoth  bones,  especially  of  their  means 
of  defense,  their  m^olar  teeth,  the  bones  of  their  fore- 
and  hind-feet,  apparently  from  at  least  five  individu- 
als. Several  of  these  bones  show  distinct  evidence  of 
having  been  broken  with  the  aid  of  sharp-edged  in- 
struments. At  the  same  time  a  number  of  objects 
were  found  testifying  to  the  use  of  fire,  as  a  quantity 
of  partly  charred  wood  proves,  some  pieces  of  wood 
and  half  burned  bones,  as  well  as  two  blocks  of  gran- 
ite, which  had  been  submitted  to  the  action  of  fire. 
All  these  objects  were  found  here  in  such  abundance 
that  the  charcoal,  small  bones  and  fragments  of  flint 
formed  two  thin  beds  in  the  sand  called  the  '  bed  of 
human  culture.'  ''  ^^ 

Five  other  places  in  European  Russia  are  mentioned 
by  Professor  Armaschevsky  as  furnishing  similar  ob- 
jects in  early  Pleistocene  deposits.     These  are  as  fol- 


Rcrndlns  of  Gldcuil  Man  in  Europe  313 

lows:  "  I,  at  the  village  of  Gontsy,  Loubny  district, 
province  of  Poltawa ;  2,  at  the  village  of  Karatcha- 
rowo,   Arourom  district,   province  of  Nijni-Novgorod  ; 

3,  at  the   village  of  Kostensk,   province  of  Wo  rone  j ; 

4,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  village  Stoudenitsy,  Po- 
dolie;  5,  in  the  vicinity  of  Kamenets-Podolsk.  The 
principal  ones  are  those  of  Gontsy  and  Karatcharowo, 
also  considered  under  the  geological  report.  Heaps 
of  objects  shaped  from  fragments  of  flint  have  been 
found  there  by  the  side  of  charcoal  and  mammoth 
bones  in  a  bed  of  loess,  but  at  a  depth  of  not  over 
four  feet."  ^" 

According  to  Professor  Armaschevsky  it  is  probable 
that  at  the  time  of  these  deposits,  Central  Russia  "  was 
still  covered  by  its  mantle  of  ice  and  southern  Russia 
had  a  climate  cold  enough  to  be  favorable  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  mammoth,   rhinoceros,   and  musk  ox."^'*^ 

From  Siberia,  also,  come  reports  of  the  remains  of 
man  associated  with  the  bones  of  the  mammoth  buried 
deeply  beneath  the  surface.  In  1896  Professor  Ka- 
schenko  had  found  "  remains  of  a  mammoth  twelve 
feet  below  the  surface  of  a  cliff  which  stands  136  feet 
above  the  present  level  of  the  river  Tom.  Only  a  few 
small  bones  of  the  skeleton  were  missing,  and  with  it 
were  associated  thirty  flint  knives,  besides  scrapers  and 


314  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

about  one  hundred  flakes.  The  large  bones  were  split 
in  the  usual  way  for  the  extraction  of  the  marrow, 
and  there  were  other  clear  indications  of  the  presence 
of  man.  ,  .  .  The  position  and  various  other  circum- 
stances exclude  any  recent  data  for  the  find."  ^* 

We  must  not  omit  to  notice  the  account  given  by 
Professor  Albrecht  Penck  of  the  occurrence  of  palaeo- 
lithic implements  in  a  cavern  at  Wildkirchli,  Canton 
Appenzell,  Switzerland.  As  early  as  1861  Riitimeyer 
announced  the  presence  of  bones  of  the  cave  bear  in 
the  floor  of  this  cavern,  but  it  was  not  until  1903  and 
1904  that  stone  implements  were  discovered  by  Bach- 
ler.  The  recent  deposits  underlying  the  floor  were 
found  to  be  about  fifteen  feet  thick,  and  to  cover  an 
area  of  several  hundred  square  yards.  In  the  portions 
of  this  accumulation  already  explored  the  bones  of 
two  hundred  individuals  of  this  species  had  been 
found.  They  occur  at  all  levels  below  the  upper  two 
feet,  and  are  everywhere  accompanied  by  implements, 
both  of  stone  and  bone.  The  material  from  which 
most  of  the  implements  were  made  had  been  brought 
up  from  the  valley  one  or  two  thousand  feet  below, 
while  a  few  made  of  greenish  flint  must  have  come 
from  a  distance.  The  implements  all  displayed  crude 
workmanship.      Professor    Penck    fixes    the   period    of 


% 


'^ . 


.^    - 


3l6  Ori({in  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

the  prehistoric  occupation  of  the  cave  at  a  time  pre- 
ceding the  Wlirm  glacial  episode,  corresponding  to  the 
Wisconsin  episode  in  America.  During  this  episode 
the  snow  line,  on  the  Alps,  descended  nearly  a  thou- 
sand feet  below  the  level  of  the  cave,  hence  it  is  evi- 
dent that  it  could  not  have  been  occupied  then.  As 
the  animals  associated  w^ith  man  in  the  cave  are  those 
w^hich  characterize  the  middle  part  of  the  Glacial 
epoch,  it  would  seem  certain  that  the  occupation  took 
place  during  an  interglacial  episode,  separating  the 
Riss  episode  of  advance  from  the  Wiirm,  this  cor- 
responding to  that  between  the  Illinoisan  and  the 
Wisconsin  in  America.  The  sterile  layer,  nearly  two 
feet  thick  at  the  top  of  the  floor,  represents  the  accu- 
mulation since  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch. ^^ 

But  in  estimating  the  lapse  of  time  since  these 
periods,  Mr.  Penck  makes  assumptions  w^hich  are  not 
supported  by  our  observations  in  America.  Penck 
estimates  thirty  thousand  years  for  the  post-glacial 
period  and  as  much  more  for  the  continuance  of  the 
Wiirm  or  Wisconsin  episode  of  advance,  and  thus 
WT)uld  fix  the  date  of  these  accumulations  as  one  hun- 
dred thousand  years  ago.  But  the  evidence  in  Amer- 
ica indubitably  shows  that  post-glacial  time  cannot  be 
extended  for  more  than  ten  thousand  years;  while 
abundant  evidence   comes   from   the  Alaskan   glaciers 


Remains   of   Ghuuil  Man   in   Europe  317 

of  a  rapidity,  both  in   the  advance  and  tlie  retreat  of 
glaciers,    which,    throws    all    onlinary    calculations    out 
of  account.     The  evitlence  whicli  I  advanced  in   1886, 
showing  that  the  great   Muir  Glacier  in   Alaska  had 
retreated  twenty  miles  in   a  hundred  years,   and   that 
during  the  same  time  the  thickness  of  it  in  the  upper 
part  of   Muir   Inlet   had   diminished   more   than   three 
thousand  feet  has  been  amply  supported  by  all  subse- 
quent investigations.    Indeed,  the  front  of  the  glacier, 
a  thousand  feet  thick  when  I  was  there  in   1886,   re- 
treated in  the   following  twenty-four  years  seven  and 
one-half  miles,   carrying  it  back   to   a   point   where  at 
the   time   of  my  observations   the  surface   of   the   gla- 
cier was   a  thousand   feet  thicker  than   it   was   at   the 
front  at  that  time.     Nearly  all  the  glaciers  in  that  re- 
gion   have    retreated    to    a    corresponding    extent.      In 
short,   the  observations  upon   Alaskan    glaciers   during 
the  last  twenty-five  years  show  that  we  are  so  ignorant 
of  the  causes  of  the  climatic  changes  which  are  now 
soing  on  that  v/e  are  utterly  unable  to  establish  any 
rate   for   the   growth    and    decay  of  such   gigantic   ice 
streams  as  now  exist  in  Alaska,  and   formerly  existed 
in    Switzerland.      It   is   far  more    reasonable   to  f^ucss 
that  the  interglacial  period  during  which  man  inhab- 
ited  the  Alpine  cavern   under  consideration   occurred 
fifteen  thousand  years  ago,  than   it  is  to  frucss  that  it 


3i8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

was  a  hundred  thousand  years  ago.  No  offhand  esti- 
mates concerning  such  dates  can  have  any  value  which 
do  not  take  into  account  the  facts  brought  to  light  by 
our  observations  in  America.^^  (See  accompanying 
map  and  illustrations  on  pp.  202,  203.) 

The  establishment  of  the  existence  of  man  during 
the  River  Drift  period,  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme 
in  1859,  and  of  his  association  with  a  large  number  of 
extinct  animals,  at  once  gave  new  interest  to  the  dis- 
coveries that  had  been  made  of  a  similar  coexistence 
in  the  remains  found  in  numerous  prehistoric  caves 
in  England  and  on  the  Continent.^' 

Kent's  Hole,  near  Torquay  in  Devonshire,  had 
been  carefully  explored  in  1826,  by  Rev.  J.  Mac- 
Enery,  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  residing  in  the  vi- 
cinity. But  owing  to  his  premature  death,  and  to 
the  incredulity  with  which  his  reports  were  received, 
his  discoveries  were  not  published  until  1859,  when  a 
cave  at  Brixham,  in  the  neighborhood,  was  explored 
by  Mr.  Pengclly,  under  the  supervision  of  a  number 
of  eminent  members  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science.  The  facts  concerning  the 
Brixham  cave  being  so  similar  to  those  from  Kent's 
Hole,  there  was  no  longer  any  doubt  about  the  gen- 
uineness of   Mr.    MacEnery's   discoveries,   which  had 


Ri'inains   of   (i/arial  Man   in    Europe  \\() 

been  so  careful ly  recordecl  by  biin  tbirty  years  before. 
Tbese  caves  bad  been  resorted  to  for  sbelter  by  man 
from  the  earliest  time  of  his  existence  to  a  compara- 
tively recent  period.  In  the  soil  forming  the  surface 
of  the  floor,  which  was  only  a  few  inches  deep,  were 
found  Roman  pottery,  iron  and  bronze  spearheads, 
polished  stone  weapons,  mingled  with  the  bones  of 
various  domestic  animals,  including  the  horse.  Below 
this  was  a  stalagmite  floor,  from  one  to  three  feet 
thick.  Under  this  was  a  compact  deposit  of  red  earth 
from  two  to  thirteen  feet  thick.  Implements  of  flint 
and  bone  abounded  in  this  stratum,  mingled  with  the 
bones  of  the  cave  bear,  the  cave  lion,  the  mammoth, 
the  woolly  rhinoceros,  the  wild  ox,  the  horse,  the 
Irish  elk,  and  the  reindeer.  Flint  implements  were 
also  found  in  a  brecciated  deposit  still  below  this. 

A  cave  at  Wookey  Hole,  near  Wells,  in  Somerset, 
explored  by  Professor  Boyd  Dawkins,  yielded  a  large 
number  of  paL^olithic  specimens,  together  with  an 
enormous  number  of  the  bones  of  the  extinct  animals 
just  mentioned.  At  Cresswell  Crags,  in  Derbyshire, 
other  caves  were  equally  prolific  in  the  remains  of 
man  and  his  congeners  of  the  Glacial  epoch.  In  one 
of  these  there  were  found  also  the  bones  of  the  Ma- 
chairodus,  a  tiger  which  originated  in  the  Tertiary 
period,  and  became  extinct  in  prehistoric  times. 


320  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

But  it  fs  not  necessary  to  multiply  details.  The 
caves  of  Southern  E^ngland  bear  abundant  testimony 
to  the  existence  of  a  prehistoric  race  in  Great  Britain, 
contemporary  with  the  River  Drift  man  of  the  east- 
ern counties  and  of  Northern  France. 

On  the  Continent,  discoveries  of  human  remains 
attributed  to  this  same  age  began  to  be  made  in  the 
year  1700,  in  caverns  at  Canstadt,  a  small  village 
near  Stuttgart,  in  Wiirttemberg,  where  at  that  time  a 
skull  of  a  very  primitive  type  was  found  associated 
with  bones  of  the  extinct  animals,  which  later  were 
found  to  be  characteristic  of  the  Glacial  age.  Little 
was  thought  of  this  until  the  discovery  by  Dr. 
Schmerling  of  a  similar  skull  in  the  cave  at  Engis,  a 
village  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Meuse,  about  eight 
miles  above  Liege,  in  Belgium.  There  were  here  also 
the  same  associated  remains  of  extinct  animals,  that 
had  been  noted  in  the  high-level  river  drift  deposits, 
and  in  the  caves  of  England  and  Canstadt.^'^  l^he 
shallowness  of  the  skull  and  the  projecting  eyebrows 
presented  such  a  similarity  to  the  skull  of  an  ape  that 
its  great  age  was  at  once  assumed,  and  the  "  Engis 
skull  "  became  tlie  common  designation  of  that  of 
primitive  man.  But  as  the  skull  at  Canstadt  had  been 
discovered  earlier,  the  Germans  claimed  the  name  by 
right  of  priority,  so  that  we  now  speak  of  the  Can- 


Rc/fif.ins  of   a  I  (I  rial  Man   in   Europe 


32. 


stadt  race  as  one  of  the  most  primitive  in  Europe. 

But  Germany  was  destined  to  produce  a  still  more 
Lienuine  type  of  what  was  supposed  to   he  the  primi- 
tive race,  in  the  Neanderthal  skull  discovered  in   1857 
by   some   workmen    in    the    valley   of   the   Neander,    a 
small    stream    tributary    to    the    Rhine    near    Diissel- 
dorf/"'     This  was  long  supposed  to  be  the  most  ape- 
like   human    skull    that    had    been    found.     The    jaw, 
however,   was   absent.      Rut   notwithstanding  the   ape- 
like appearance  of  the  skull  its  capacity  was  estimated 
by  Huxley  to  be  1,250  cubic  centimeters,  which  is  far 
above  that  of  the   highest  apes,   and   equal   to  that  of 
the    average    capacity    of    Polynesian    and    Hottentot 
skulls.    Later  estimates  of  the  Neanderthal  skull,  how- 
ever, bring  its  capacity  up  to  1,600  cubic  centimeters, 
which  is  more  than  that  of  the  average  European   at 
the  present  day.     Though  there  was  little  to  connect 
the  Neanderthal  skull   with  the  Glacial  epoch  except 
its  supposed  low  character,   it  has  been  so  much  dis- 
cussed that  it  stands  as  the  best  known  representative 
of   primitive   man.      Huxley   pronounced    it   the    most 
apelike  of  all   skulls   that  had   been   discovered   in   his 
day. 

A  far  more  important  discovery,  however,  was  that 
made  in  1886  by  Messrs.  Fraipont  and  Lohest  at  Spy. 
in  the  province  of  Namur  in  Belgium.^*^    Fortunately 


322  Ori<rin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

in  this  case  there  were  two  complete  skeletons,  a  male 
and  a  female,  and  the  jav/  bones  and  most  of  the 
other  part  of  the  body  framework  were  still  intact. 
Fortunately,  also,  the  cavern  floor  had  not  been  dis- 
turbed until  it  was  subjected  to  strict  scientific  obser- 
vation. In  the  underlying  deposits  there  were  three 
distinct  beds  containing  bones,  separated  by  strata  of 
stalagmite.  In  the  upper  stratum,  modern  implements 
only  were  found.      In  the  second  stratum  implements 


Skull  of  ths  Man  of  Spy.      (Photograph  by  Mr.  S, 
Prentiss  Baldwin.) 


Ri/nains  of  Glacuil  Man   in   Europe  ^2J 

of  ivory  occurred  and  some  fragments  of  pottery,  to- 
iiether  with  the  characteristic  bones  of  extinct  species 
of  glacial  animals. 

The  skeletons  occurred  in  the  lowest  bed,  and  were 
associated  with  abundant  remains  of  rhinoceros,  mas- 
todon, cave  hyena,  and  other  extinct  animals.  Flint 
implements  were  also  found,  but  they  were  of  the 
so-called  "  Mousterian  "  type,  supposed  to  belong  to 
the  middle  of  the  palaeolithic  period.  The  discussion 
of  the  characteristics  of  these  skeletons  must  also  be 
deferred  to  the  chapter  on  the  physiological  argument. 

A  still  more  important  field  for  investigating  the 
state  of  early  cave  man  is  found  in  Southern  and  Cen- 
tral France,  especially  in  Dordogne.  The  most  im- 
portant of  all  discoveries  \\\  this  region  seems  to  have 
been  that  of  considerable  portions  of  a  human  skeleton 
found  in  1908  by  Abbes  J.  and  A.  Bouyssonie  and  L. 
Bardon.-^      Hie  cave   is   situated    near   the   village   of 

o 

La  Chapelle  aux  Saints,  about  fifteen  miles  south  of 
Brive  in  the  district  of  Correze.  The  fragments  in- 
clude the  cranium  and  lower  jaw,  which  closely  re- 
semble the  same  parts  in  the  man  of  Spy.  But  while 
the  lower  jaw  is  remarkable  for  its  size,  and  the 
frontal  projections  over  the  eyes  are  unusually  promi- 
nent, the  capacity  of  the  skull  is  estimated  at  1,626 
cubic  ceiitimeters,  which,   as  we  have  said   in   connec- 


324  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ti'on  with  the  Neanderthal  skull,  is  somewhat  more 
than  that  of  the  average  European  of  the  present  day. 
There  is  nothing  to  indicate  the  glacial  age  of  this 
skeleton,  except  its  association  with  the  rude  stone 
implements,  and  the  remains  of  the  bison,  reindeer, 
horse,  and   rhinoceros,  characteristic  of  that  period. 

Another  important  discovery  was  made  in  Dor- 
dogne  by  Herr  O.  Hauser,  in  1908,  in  Combe- 
Capelle,  near  Mont  Ferrand-Perigord.  This  was  of 
a  nearly  perfect  skeleton,  associated  with  palaeolithic 
implements;  but  the  skull  was  dolichocephalic  and  of 
the  average  capacity  of  modern  skulls,  resembling  in 
many  respects  that  already  described  as  having  been 
found  at  Galley  Hill,  near  London. 

So  far  we  have  not  paid  attention  to  the  minute 
classification  of  palseolithic  implements  which  has  been 
attempted,  and  by  which  their  age  is  thought  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  character  and  relative  perfection  of  the 
implements  themselves.  We  have  felt  it  the  less  im- 
portant to  do  this  from  the  conviction  that  such  evi- 
dence of  age  is  of  little  value  compared  with  that 
which  is  derived  from  the  actual  geological  position 
in  which  they  are  found.  The  implements  upon  which 
this  classification  is  based  largely  come  from  caverns 
outside   of    the   glaciated    areas,    where   the    geolocrical 


Rcinditis  of    Gldc'ud  Man  in  Europe 


325 


evidence  is  not  available.  However,  the  association 
of  these  various  classes  of  implements  with  animal  re- 
mains characteristic  of  the  Glacial  epoch  fixes  their 
position  ^^■ith  reasonable  certainty. 

The  paleolithic  series  is  provisionally  divided  by 
Professor  Sollas -'-  into  three  2;roups  —  an  upper,  a 
middle,  and  a  lower.  And  these  are  subdivided  into 
stages  as  follows: 

Ma(2:dalenian  stage 
Solutrian 
Aurio;nacian       " 

Mousterian        " 

Acheulean  " 

Chellean  " 

Strepyan  " 

Mesvinian  " 


Upper     Pahuolithic 
Aliddlc  Pahcolithic 


Lower  Pal; 


L'OilthlC 


"  The  Mesvinian  implements  are  mostly  simple 
flakes  of  Hint  or  brown  chert,  roughly  shaped  and 
irregularly  chipped  at  the  margin.  .  .  .  The  absence 
of  any  forms  which  could  have  served  as  weapons  is 
worthy  of  note." 

"  The  distinctive  character  of  the  Strepyan  indus- 
try, according  to  M.  Rutot,  is  that  all  the  implements 
retained  a  considerable  part  of  the  original  crust  of 
the  flint  nodule  from  which  they  have  been  fashioned." 


326  Orisr'm  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

But  I  have  myself  at  Amiens  obtained  implements 
with  this  characteristic. 

The  Chellean  implements  are  dressed  by  flaking  on 
both  sides  forming  an  edge  which  presents  a  wavy 
line,  and  having  commonly  somewhat  the  shape  of  an 
almond.  This  implement  is  called  by  Professor  Sol- 
las  a  "  boucher,"  and  is  evidently  shaped  to  be  held 
in  the  hand,  and  to  be  used  without  the  intervention 
of  a  haft.  Indeed,  M.  Commont  insists  that  the  thick 
butt  end  was  evidently  fitted  to  accommodate  the 
thumb  and  fingers  as  it  was  held  in  the  hand.  It 
has  been  frequently  remarked  as  singular  that  few  of 
the  Chellean  implements  of  this  sort  show  signs  of 
use,  but  held  in  the  hand  it  would  be  a  deadly  weapon 
in  contending  with  either  man  or  beast.  Implements 
of  this  sort  were  very  widely  disseminated  during  the 
Glacial  epoch,  being  found  all  over  Western  Europe 
and  in  America. 

The  Acheulean  implements  differ  so  little  from  the 
Chellean  that  it  is  difficult  to  draw  a  dividing  line 
between  them,  but  in  general  they  are  flatter  and 
lighter  and  the  flaking  is  not  so  coarse. 

The  Mousterian  stage  is  characterized  by  imple- 
ments made  for  the  most  part  from  simple  flakes 
struck  off  from  a  core  which  had  been  trimmed  to  a 
convenient    shape    for    producing    those    of    the    right 


Remains  of  Clacud  Man  in   Europe  i,!"] 

shape  and  size.  Tlu'se  flakes  were  then  trininied  so 
as  to  ^ive  a  rounded  outhne  to  the  base  and  to  reilucc 
the  ed^es  where  they  were  too  fragile.  The  large 
Implements  ("  Bouchers")  fitted  at  their  bases  to  the 
whole  hand,  so  characteristic  of  Chellean  industry,  are 
almost  wholly  absent  from  the  Mousterian  deposits. 
The  Hakes  struck  ofE  from  the  boucher  often  had  a 
close  resemblance  to  the  Mousterian  form.  Skillfully 
made  scrapers  are  also  characteristic  of  the  Mouste- 
rian age.  The  edges  of  these  were  often  notched  so 
that  they  could  be  used  as  saws.  Occasionally  also  a 
lance  head  is  found,  notched  near  the  base  to  permit 
its  being  fastened  to  a  shaft  by  a  ligature. 

The  period  takes  its  name  from  the  cave  of  Le 
Moustier  in  the  valley  of  the  Vezere,  Dordogne.  Im- 
plements of  this  character  are  found  for  the  most  part 
in  caves,  though  they  occur  to  some  extent  in  river 
gravels,  from  which  some  geological  evidence  is  de- 
rived concerning  their  relative  age.  This,  however, 
does  not  seem  to  be  of  any  very  definite  value.  It 
should  be  stated,  however,  that  implements  supposed  to 
be  characteristic  of  the  lower  stages  already  described 
are  not  altogether  absent  from  the  caves  principally 
characterized  by  the  presence  of  Mousterian  imple- 
ments. 

The   animal    remains   of   the    Mousterian    stage   are 


328  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

similar  to  those  of  the  previous  stages,  except  that  the 
hippopotamus  and  a  species  of  rhinoceros  and  of  ele- 
phant supposed  to  belong  to  a  warmer  epoch,  have 
disappeared,  and  mammoth  remains  have  become  pre- 
dominant. The  remains  of  the  northern  reindeer,  and 
the  musk  ox,  which  now  inhabits  Northern  Greenland, 
also  occur;  likewise  of  the  arctic  fox,  the  arctic  hare, 
the  chamois,  and  the  lemming.  But  it  is  important  to 
notice  that  with  these  animals  now  confined  to  cold 
regions  are  associated  remains  of  the  lion,  hyena,  and 
leopard  now  living  only  in  warmer  regions. 

Probably  the  most  important  relic  classified  as  of 
Mousterian  age  is  the  human  skull  found  near  the 
village  of  La  Chapelle  aux  Saints,  already  referred  to. 
This  skeleton  was  surrounded  by  a  great  number  of 
well-w^orked  Mousterian  implements.  Here  also,  a 
year  later,  another  skeleton  of  similar  character  was 
found. 

These  skulls  so  closely  resemble  the  Neanderthal 
skull  and  the  one  found  at  Spy,  near  Liege,  in  Bel- 
gium, in  1885,  that  they  may  be  properly  classed 
together  as  of  Mousterian  age.  But  it  would  be  un- 
warranted to  consider  them  as  the  sole  representatives 
of  the  Mousterian  age,  since  there  is  much  evidence  of 
the  existence  of  other  races  In  deposits  equally  old.  It 
is  interesting  to  notice,  also,  that  after  extensive  com- 


330  Orifi'm  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

parisons,  both  of  skeletons  and  implements,  Professor 
Sollas  finds  that  there  is  a  close  resemblance  between 
the  present  races  of  Australia  and  the  Mousterian  cave 
dwellers  of  Europe  in  glacial  times  so  that  he  speaks 
of  the  Australians  as  "  the  Mousterians  of  the  Anti- 
podes." -■■ 

The  upper  division  of  the  palaeolithic  age  of  man 
is  divided,  as  already  said,  into  three  stages,  the  lower 
of  these  the  Aurignacian,  named  from  the  town  of 
Aurignac,  in  the  department  of  the  Haute-Garonne 
near  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees  Mountains,  where  the 
discovery  of  the  sepulchral  cave  w^as  made  in  1852. 
The  implements  classed  as  of  Aurignacian  age  show 
a  marked  improvement  in  the  art  of  working  flint, 
while  for  the  first  time  bone  implements  of  various 
kinds  become  frequent.  But  more  important  than  all, 
skillful  drawings  of  various  animal  forms  were  found 
in  a  cave  of  this  age  at  Altamira,  some  of  which  were 
colored  with  pigments  of  red,  brown,  black,  and  yel- 
\o\\\  Sketches  in  black  and  white,  showing  marked 
skill,  were  foimd  in  various  other  caverns  soon  after. 
These  drawings  and  sketches  represent  the  bison,  the 
deer,  the  horse,  the  mammoth,  and  various  fishes,  to- 
gether with  numerous  fantastic  imaginary  forms.  Nu- 
merous figurines  showing  great  skill  in  carving,  were 
also  found,  some  of  which  were  made  from  stone  and 


Mammoth  on  walls  of  the  grotto  at  Bernifal.     (By  courtesy 
of  Records  of  the  Past.) 


Bison   on   walls   of   the   grotto   at   Bernifal.      (By   courtesy  of 
Records  of  the  Past.) 


332  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

others  from  ivor}'.  The  head  is  usually  absent  from 
these.  One  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  resem- 
blance of  one  of  these,  the  Venus  impudica,  carved 
from  ivory,  to  the  Nampa  figurine  found  beneath  the 
volcanic  formations  in  the  Snake  River  Valley,  in 
Idaho,  of  w^hich  an  acount  has  been  given  in  a  pre- 
ceding chapter.      (See  p.  268.) 

The  animals  in  all  three  stages  of  the  upper  palaeo- 
lithic period  are  notably  different  from  those  of  the 
preceding  stages.  From  this  it  is  inferred  that  the  cli- 
mate had  considerably  ameliorated  during  the  transi- 
tion from  the  Mousterian  to  the  Aurignacian  stage. 
Bones  of  the  reindeer  are  rare,  while  those  of  the 
horse,  the  cave  lion,  and  the  h3ena  are  abundant.  It 
is  also  to  be  noted  that  remains  attributed  to  the 
Aurignacian  stage  are  frequently  met  w^ith  in  the  open 
country  buried  in  deposits  of  loess. 

The  second  stage  of  the  upper  palaeolithic  epoch,  the 
Solutrian,  show^s  a  still  greater  advance  in  the  manu- 
facture of  flint  implements  of  all  sorts,  as  wtU  as  in 
the  fashioning  of  bone  and  ivory,  while  an  occasional 
carving  is  found  upon  bones.  The  horse  was  the 
prominent  animal  of  this  age.  About  some  of  the 
caverns  in  France  the  bones  of  the  horse  were  found 
in  immense  quantities,  indicating  that  this  animal  was 
a   favorite   source  of   food,  —  the   piles  of  bones  sur- 


Remains  of  Glacial  Man  in  Europe  333 

rounding    the    caverns    appearing    to    be    refuse    heaps 
simihir  to  the  kitchen  middens. 

The  Magdalenian  stage,  with  which  the  palaeo- 
lithic epoch  closes,  followed  closely  upon  the  Solutrian, 
but  instead  of  there  being  an  improvement  in  the  type 
of  stone  implements  there  was  a  marked  decadence. 
On  the  other  hand  the  implements  and  weapons  of 
bone,  deer's  horn  and  ivory  show  a  very  marked  im- 
provement. Arrowheads  and  spearheads  now  appear, 
with  barbed  harpoons  and  evident  arrangements  for 
fixing  them  upon  shafts,  while  skillful  drawings  of 
animal  forms  occur  on  many  of  their  ivory  imple- 
ments, and  domestic  utensils  occasionally  appear,  and 
numerous  objects  designed  as  ornaments.  Of  the  ani- 
mals figured  upon  their  implements  and  weapons  we 
find  the  reindeer,  the  Irish  deer,  the  bison,  horse,  ass, 
musk  ox,  saiga,  antelope,  glutton,  arctic  hare,  and 
lemming,  indicating  a  colder  epoch  than  that  which 
preceded  it.  Of  the  animal  remains  those  of  the  horse 
are  much  less  numerous  than  they  were  In  the  Solu- 
trian stage,  but  those  of  the  reindeer  have  increased 
so  much  that  It  has  been  called  the  **  reindeer  age,"  in- 
dicating, as  it  Is  thought,  that  a  subarctic  cllm.ate 
characterized   the  period   In   Europe. 


334  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

CHAPTER   X 

SUPPOSED  EVIDENCE  OF  TERTIARY  MAN 

While  the  Glacial  epoch  was,  as  we  have  seen,  of 
relatively  short  continuance,  and  characterized  by  ab- 
normal rapidity  in  the  earth  movements  and  consequent 
climatic  changes,  the  Tertiary  period  was  one  of  long 
continuance  (from  fifty  to  one  hundred  times  that  of 
the  Glacial  epoch)  and  was  characterized  by  compara- 
tively stable  conditions,  slower  earth  movements,  and 
relatively  uniform  climatic  conditions.  In  short,  the 
Glacial  epoch  was  a  catastrophe  resulting  from  the 
culmination  of  the  effects  of  slow  moving  causes 
leading  up  to  it  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Tertiary 
period,  when  the  vast  continental  uplifts  of  which 
we  have  spoken  were  taking  place,  not  merely  in  the 
Northern  Hemisphere  but  in  the  whole  world. ^  The 
question,  therefore,  of  the  existence  of  man  far  back 
in  the  Tertiary  period  is  one  of  supreme  importance 
and  interest.  Space,  however,  wnll  not  permit  us  to 
give  more  than  a  brief  summary  of  the  discussions  of 
the  subject  which  have  been  carried  on  during  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century. 

The   evidence    for    the   existence   of   Tertiary   man 


Supposed  Evidence  of  Tertiary  Man  335 

mostly  centers  in  certain  rude  chipped  pieces  of  flint 
which  have  been  found  in  undisturbed  strata  of  sup- 
posed Tertiary  age.  The  instances  of  human  bones 
thought  to  have  been  found  on  the  Italian  coast  in 
Tertiary  formations  proved  to  be  interments,  and  so 
were  long  since  left  out  of  the  question.  Likewise, 
cuts  or  breaks  in  animal  bones  of  Tertiary  age,  or- 
iginally supposed  to  be  the  work  of  man,  are  now  all 
accounted  for  by  natural  movements  of  the  soil  en- 
closing sharp  substances  like  fractured  flint,  or  as 
having  been  marked  by  sharks'  teeth,  whose  fossil  re- 
mains occur  in  connection  w^ith  them. 

But  in  1867,  and  later,  the  Abbe  Bourgeois  discov- 
ered a  large  number  of  chipped  flint  flakes  in  Tertiary 
deposits  at  Thenay,  near  Tours,  France.  These,  how- 
ever, wTre  all  of  small  dimensions,  so  small,  indeed, 
that  it  was  difficult  to  imagine  any  use  which  they 
could  have  served.  The  deposit  containing  these  ob- 
jects is  classed  by  geologists  as  Miocene,  or  middle 
Tertiary. 

A  little  later,  in  1871,  M.  Ribeiro  began  to  dis- 
cover chipped  flints  in  a  lacustrine  deposit  of  Miocene 
age  at  Otta  in  the  Tagus  Valley,  not  far  from  Lisbon. 
The  distinguished  anthropologist  G.  de  Mortillet 
regarded  the  flints  as  chipped  by  design ;  but  did  not 
attribute  them  to  an  existing  species  of  man    {Homo 


336 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


sapiens),  but  to  a  semihuman  precursor,  who  had  just 
wft  enough  to  pick  up  a  stone  and  use  it  for  some 
temporary  purpose,  as  apes  have  been  known  to  use 
stones  for  the  purpose  of  cracking  cocoanuts.  But 
after  an  extended  canvassing  of  the  subject  the  ma- 
jority of  anthropologists  have  concluded  that  in  both 
cases  the  chipping  of  these  flints  is  natural  and  not 
artificial,  having  been  produced  by  the  friction  and 
impact  connected  with  the  irregular  settling  of  strata 
in  which  they  occurred,  or  by  the  variations  in  tem- 
perature w^hen  exposed  to  the  hot  rays  of  the  sun  by 
day  and  to  the  chilling  frosts  by  night.- 

Again,  in  1877,  Mr.  J.  B.  Rames  discovered  chipped 
flints  in  middle  Tertian^  deposits  at  Puy  Courny,  near 
d'Aurillac,    in    the   department   of   Cantal,    Auvergne. 


An  eolith  from  Puy  Courny.      (After  May et,  L'Anthr.. 
natural  size. ) 


S/ip posed   Evidence   of   Tertiary  Man  },},'] 

The  aue  of  the  deposits  was  cstabh'shccl  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  remains  of  extinct  mammals  characteristic 
of  that  period.  The  only  question  of  dispute  relates 
to  the  artificial  character  of  the  flints.  The  contest 
upon  that  point  was  as  vigorous  as  that  concerning 
the  discoveries  at  Thenay  and  Otta,  no  less  authorities 
than  Quatrefages,  Rutot,  and  Mortillet  maintaining 
their  artificial  character. 

In  1885,  Mr.  B.  Harrison,  of  Ightam,  in  the  val- 
ley of  the  Thames,  a  short  distance  below  London, 
brought  to  the  notice  of  Professor  Prestwich  a  num- 
ber of  chipped  flints  which  he  supposed  to  be  of  arti- 
ficial origin,  but  which  undoubtedly  dated  from  far 
back  in  the  Tertiary  period.  At  any  rate  the  amount 
of  valley  erosion  which  has  taken  place  since  the  for- 
mation of  the  deposits  in  which  these  flints  occur  has 
been  enormous  as  compared  with  post-glacial  erosion. 
To  indicate  their  apparent  age  the  name  "  eolith  "  has 
been  invented,  and  that  will  be  the  word  hereafter 
used  in  referring  to  them.  The  age  of  the  eoliths  is 
inferred  not  only  from  their  position  but  from  their 
primitive  appearance.  According  to  Prestwich,  the 
eoliths  are  almost  all  more  or  less  stained  like  the 
broken  drift  flints  with  which  they  are  associated ; 
they  generally  show  considerable  wear,  as  though  they 
had  been   knocked   about;  the  trimming  is  also  often 


338  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

very  slight  and  has  generally  been  made  on  the  nat- 
ural edges  of  broken  flints  which  were  picked  up  on 
the  surface.  Thousands  of  these  eoliths  have  already 
been  found  in  England,  in  twenty-five  or  thirty  local- 
ities, in  deposits  far  above  those  of  the  River  Drift 
period. 

But  in  the  last  few  years  the  discoveries  of  Pro- 
fessor A.  Rutot  ^  have  largely  monopolized  attention. 
These  have  been  chiefly  made  in  the  Tertiary  plateaus, 
or  terraces,  bordering  the  various  streams  in  Belgium, 
where  he  finds  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  eoliths 
occurring  in  Tertiary  deposits  and  a  higher  order  of 
implements  in  the  overlying  Pleistocene  strata. 

But  it  would  now  seem  that  the  evidence  for  the 
artificial  character  of  the  chippings  on  eoliths  is  in- 
sufficient to  establish  their  genuineness.  Further  ob- 
servations and  experiments  have  shown  that  chippings 
of  such  a  character  can  be,  and  are,  the  results  of 
natural  forces.*  Mr.  S.  Hazzledine  Warren  has  ex- 
hibited flints  of  a  newly  mended  road  broken  by  cart 
wheels,  which  closely  resembled  eoliths,  showing  that 
where  a  small  pebble  lies  against  a  larger  fragment  a 
force  coming  upon  the  two  forms  a  notch,  the  edge 
of  which  is  later  subject  to  secondary  flaking,  pro- 
ducing a  form,  closely  resembling  the  hollow  scrapers 
frequently  presented    as   eoliths.     Two   adjacent   peb- 


Supposed  Evidence  of  Tertiary  Man  339 


Associated  fragments  of  flints  from  the  Thanet  sands  of 
Belle-Assize  (Oise)  produced  by  flaking  in  situ.  (After 
Breuil,  X   about  1-2.)     (From  Sollas's  "Ancient  Hunters.") 

bles  may  produce  a  double  notch,  leaving  between 
what  would  be  classed  as  a  boring  point.  The  irreg- 
ular settling  of  superincumbent  beds  is  sufficient  to 
provide  the  force  necessary  for  producing  these  effects. 
M.  Commont,  of  Amiens,  figures  examples  where 
such  forms  have  been  actually  produced  by  the  nat- 
ural pressure  of  the  soil.  Furthermore,  M.  Boule  has 
collected  from,  a  revolving  mass  of  chalk  and  clay, 
which  is  being  mixed  for  the  production  of  cement, 
any  number  of  forms  of  flint  possessing  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  eoliths.  The  flint  nodules  contained  in  the 
chalk  are  subjected  to  a  succession  of  violent  impacts 


340  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

in  the  mass,  which  is  kept  in  motion  for  twenty-four 
hours,  with  a  velocity  at  the  outer  edges  of  twelve  or 
fifteen  feet  per  second,  about  that  of  a  river  flood. 
After  the  mixture  is  completed  the  mud  is  drawn  ofE 
and  the  flints  remain. 

But  notwithstanding  these  results  of  Boule's  ex- 
perinjents,  the  artificial  character  of  eoliths  was  still 
maintained  by  Rutot  and  his  followers.  Within  the 
year  past,  however,  Abbe  Breuil "'  has  apparently  been 
able  to  give  a  finishing  touch  to  the  evidence  discred- 
iting the  artificial  character  of  the  eoliths.  We  will 
content  ourselves  with  quoting  the  summary  of  this 
evidence  as  given  by  Professor  Sollas.  "  These  [eoliths] 
were  found  by  the  Abbe  Breuil  in  Lower  Eocene 
sands  (Thanctien)  at  Belle-Assize,  Clermont  (Oise). 
M.  Breuil  shows  in  the  most  convincing  manner  that 
they  all  owe  their  formation  to  one  and  the  same 
process,  i.e.  to  movements  of  the  strata  w^hile  settling 
under  pressure  of  the  soil.  The  flint  nodules  crowded 
together  in  a  single  layer  are  thus  squeezed  forcibly 
one  against  the  other,  and  flaking  is  the  inevitable  re- 
sult. As  this  process  has  been  active  during  a  very 
long  period  so  the  eoliths  have  been  produced  at  very 
different  dates,  some  are  ancient  and  these  are  dis- 
tinguished by  a  dense  patina,  others  are  recent  and  the 
fractured  surfaces  of  these  are  perfectly  fresh,  with- 


Supp'jsrrl  Kvi/lenrc  of   l\rtiarx  M tin 


;4i 


out  even  incipient  patination.  In  many  cases  the  flakes 
are  still  to  be  found  in  connection  witli  the  parent 
nodule,  lyino;  apposed  to  the  surface  from  which  they 
have  been  detached.  They  display  just  the  same  forms 
as  other  Tertiary  '  eoliths,'  rano;ing  from  the  obvi- 
ously purposeless  to  those  which  simulate  design  and 
bear  bulbs  of  percussion  and  marginal  retouches. 
Among   the   most   artificial    looking   are   a   few  which 


n  a'  h  l> 

Naturally  formed  flint  flakes  from  the  Thanet  sands  of  Belle- 
Assize.  (After  Breuil,  nat.  size.)  (From  Sollas's  "An- 
cient  Hunters.")      (By  courtesy  of   Macmillan   and   Co.) 

present  an  astonishing  degree  of  resemblance  to  special 
forms  of  genuine  implements;  attention  may  be  di- 
rected to  two  in  particular,  w^hich  are  compared  by 
the  Abbe  Breuil,  the  one  to  Azilio-Tardenoisian 
flakes,  and  the  other  to  the  small  burins  of  Les 
Eyzies;  in  their  resemblance  to  artificial  forms  these 
simulacra  far  transcend  any  '  eoliths  '  w^hich  have 
been  found  on  other  horizons  of  the  Tertiary  series. 
On   the   important  question   of   man's  first  arrival   on 


342 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


this  planet  we  may  for  the  present  possess  our  minds 
in  peace,  not  a  trace  of  unquestionable  evidence  of  his 
existence  having  been  found  in  strata  admittedly  older 
than  the  Pleistocene." 


Horse  on   walls  of  the  grotto   at  Bernifal.      (By  courtesy  of 
Records  of  the  Past.) 


Glacial  Man   in    Central  Asia  343 

CHAPTER    XI 

GLACIAL  MAN  IN  CENTRAL  ASIA 

The  fact  that  man  has  penetrated  and  become  a 
denizen  of  every  portion  of  the  land  surface  of  the 
earth  raises  most  important  and  interesting  questions 
concerning  the  place  of  his  origin  and  the  probable 
routes  of  his  dispersion.  As  preliminary  to  the  im- 
mediate subject  of  this  chapter  it  will  be  profitable, 
therefore,,  to  give  a  general  summary  of  what  is 
known  concerning  the  routes  of  early  migration  open 
to  the  human  race.  For  light  upon  these  questions 
we  may  turn  with  considerable  profit  not  only  to  the 
well-know^n  recent  changes  of  land  levels  in  the 
Northern  Hemisphere,  already  noted,  but  also  to  the 
limitations  of  the  habitat  of  plants  and  animals  with 
which  he  has  been  associated.    (See  pp.  168,  301.) 

One  of  the  most  obvious  facts  concerning  the  dis- 
tribution of  plants  and  animals  is  that  the  species 
which  are  most  alike  are  distributed  around  the  world 
in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  where  the  land  contours 
approach  nearest  to  each  other,  and  the  oceans  are  so 
shallow  that  a  moderate  elevation  would  join  the 
continents   and    furnish   natural   routes   for  migration. 


344 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


It  is  thus  that  we  have  an  arctic  realm  and  a  north 
temperate  realm  circling  the  whole  earth.  But  as  we 
proceed  southward  where  the  projecting  portions  of 
continents  become  farther  and  farther  separated  from 
each  other,  the  species  of  plants  and  animals  become 
more  and  more  dissimilar  and  more  and  more  ances- 
tral in  their  forms.  But  the  range  of  many  animals 
and  plants  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  is  such  that 
we  are  compelled  to  suppose  great  changes  in  land 
levels  to  account  for  their  original  migration.  One 
of  the  most  perplexing  instances  is  that  of  the  rein- 
deer, which  are  distributed  over  the  northern  parts 
of  Europe,  Asia,  and  America,  and  are  so  closely  alike 
that  no  specific  differences  between  them  can  be  de- 
tected. Yet  not  only  are  these  animals  found  upon 
the  continents  now  separated  by  Behring  Strait,  but 
upon  the  island  of  Greenland,  which  is  separated 
from  the  continents  by  a  still  more  impassable  bar- 
rier. Large  colonies  of  this  remarkable  animal  exist 
in  Southern  and  Eastern  Greenland,  separated  from 
those  in  the  northern  part  of  the  island  by  the  icy 
barriers  of  IVlelville  Bay  and  of  Humboldt  Glacier, 
w^hich  would  seem  to  render  migration  under  present 
conditions  impossible.  To  account  for  this  distri- 
bution it  must  be  supposed  that  there  was,  in  com- 
paratively   recent   times,    an   elevation   of   land   which 


Glacidl   M(in   in   Ccnfnil  Asia  345 

connected    Cireenhind    with    North    America    or    with 
Europe  or  with  both.     To  accomplish  this  result   the 
elevation  would  have  to  amount  to  four  or  five  thou- 
sand  feet.      Such   an  elevation   over  the   region   north 
of  the  sixtieth  parallel  would  not  only  establish  broad 
land    connection   with    Europe   and   America,    but   lay 
bare  i^reat  areas  over  which  vegetable  growths  would 
spread    to    furnish    feeding    ground    for    the    immense 
herds  of  animals  that  at  one  time  frequented  the  arctic 
zone.     So  great  an  elevation  as  this  in  late  Tertiary 
times  is   by  no  means   out   of  analog}^  with  the   gen- 
eral facts  already  referred  to  concerning  earth  move- 
ments.    Late  Tertiary  elevations  all  along  the  western 
coast  of  the  Am.ericas  and  throughout  Central  Europe 
and  Asia,  amounting  to  ten  or  twelve  thousand  feet, 
are  familiar  facts  in  geological  history.     It  should  be 
noted,   also,   that  the   present  elevation   of   the  central 
portions  of   Greenland   is  largely,   if  not  wholly,   due 
to  accumulations  of  snow.     It  is  quite  probable  that 
if   the   glaciers  were   removed    from   Greenland    there 
would  be  left  nothing  but  an  archipelago,  w-ith  scat- 
tering islands  in   the  interior  and   disconnected   moun- 
tains  of   low    elevation    on    the    eastern    and    western 
borders. 

As   already   shown,    an    elevation    of    less    than    one 
thousand    feet    uould    obliterate    Behring    Strait,    and 


346  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

join  Alaska  to  Siberia  by  a  broad  belt  of  land  cover- 
ing a  large  part  of  Behring  Sea.  A  similar  elevation 
w^ould  lift  above  water  level  a  border  of  considerable 
width  extending  all  along  the  Pacific  coast  of  North 
America  and  even  to  the  end  of  South  America,  while 
on  the  Eastern  continent  it  would  obliterate  the  Ger- 
man Ocean  and  the  Strait  of  Dover  and  extend  the 
border  of  Northwestern  Europe  far  out  beyond  Scot- 
land and  Ireland  and  add  materially  to  the  borders 
of  France  and  Spain,  while  it  would  separate  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  into  two  or  three  fresh-water 
lakes,  emptjang  into  the  Atlantic  through  the  Strait 
of  Gibraltar,  if  indeed  they  did  not  become  enclosed 
basins. 

When  now  we  come  to  trace  the  movements  of 
various  extinct  animals  connected  with  the  early  life 
of  man,  they  bear  unmistakable  evidence  of  a  late 
Tertiary  land  connection  between  Asia  and  America, 
between  North  America  and  South  America,  and  be- 
tween Europe  and  Africa,  permitting  an  extensive 
interchange  of  species  between  these  regions.  Among 
the  extinct  Post-Pliocene  animals  of  North  America, 
we  find  the  remains  of  horses,  camels,  and  elephants, 
which  are  now  confined  to  the  Old  World,  and  of 
llamas,  tapirs,  and  gigantic  Edentata,  including  the 
Megatherium   and   the   Megalonyx,   which   are   pecul- 


Glacial  Man   in   Central  Asia  347 

iarly  South  American  types.     That  these  South  Amer- 
ican   types    were    late    immigrants    is    clear    from    the 
fact  that  the  remains  of  not  one  of  them  have  been 
found  in  the  Pliocene  deposits  of  North  America.     At 
the  same  time  we  find  in  the  cave  deposits  of  South 
America    of    recent    date    the    remains    of    the    horse, 
the  mastodon,   and   various  other  animals  w^hich   had 
evidently    migrated    from    North    to    South    America. 
Under  present   conditions   this  interchange   of   species 
would    be   wtII    nigh    impossible.      Such    a   migration 
points  to  an  elevation  of  land  of  two  or  three  thou- 
sand feet  in  the  latitude  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  which 
would  permit  of  a  free  interchange  of  animals  between 
North  and  South  America;  w^hile  the  peculiar  devel- 
opment   of   earlier   species    in    South   America    would 
indicate  a  previous  isolation. 

During  late  Pliocene  times  the  Mediterranean  ceased 
to  be  a  barrier  between  Africa  and  Europe;  so  that 
numerous  animals  of  African  origin  were  able  to 
migrate  to  the  north  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
penetrate  a  long  distance  into  the  interior  of  Europe. 
On  the  island  of  Malta,  for  example,  three  exrinct 
species  of  elephants,  two  of  them  of  very  small  stat- 
ure, and  an  extinct  hippopotamus  have  left  their  re- 
mains in  late  Pliocene  or  Post-Pliocene  deposits.  Re- 
mains of  the  hippopotamus  are  also  found  in  the  caves 


348  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  Gibraltar,  and  are  scattered  over  the  greater  part 
of  England  as  far  north  as  Leeds  in  Yorkshire. 

The  connection  between  the  species  of  the  Old 
World  and  the  New  is  somew^hat  difficult  to  make 
out  in  all  particulars,  but  the  following  facts  may  be 
taken  as  well  established: 

The  Primates  appear  in  the  Eocene  deposits  of 
both,  but  in  the  Miocene  deposits  the  Old  World 
forms  are  the  most  highly  organized,  making  it  alto- 
gether probable  that  the  true  monkey  and  man,  his 
nearest  ally,  developed  in  the  Eastern  continent. 

Of  the  Carnivora  true  bears  are,  in  Europe,  traced 
back  to  the  older  Pliocene,  while  in  North  America 
they  do  not  appear  until  the  Post-Pliocene  period. 
According  to  Wallace,^  bears  seem  to  have  passed 
into  America  from  the  Pala?arctic  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  Pliocene  period.  They  probably  came  in 
on  the  northwest,  and  passed  down  the  Andes  into 
South  America,  where  one  isolated  species  still  exists. 

Of  the  Ungulata,  the  true  horse  appears  in  the 
older  Pliocene  of  Europe,  but  not  until  the  newer 
Pliocene  or  Post-Pliocene  of  America;  and  this  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  earlier  forms  of  the 
family  are  most  fully  represented  in  the  Eocene  and 
Miocene  deposits  of  America.  From  all  the  facts  the 
conclusion  appears  probable  that  the  finishing  touches 


Ci /acid/   Man   in    Ccnfrnl  A si( 


349 


in  the  devclopnieiit  of  the  horse  were  given  in  the 
Old  World,  anil  that  tlie  most  specialized  species  of 
the  present  time  passed  into  North  America  from  the 
Pala^irctic  region. 

True  tapirs,  too,  evidently  originated  in  the  Old 
World,  appearing  in  the  lower  Miocene  in  Europe, 
but  in  America  not  until  the  Post-Pliocene. 

The  camel,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  have  orig- 
inated in  North  America,  where  it  is  now  extinct, 
but  in  the  Pliocene  period  six  or  seven  species  of  a 
genus  closely  allied  to  the  camel  have  been  found  in 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Texas;  while  in  the  Miocene 
period  several  specimens  of  allied  genera  have  been 
found  in  various  places,  including  Virginia.  The 
camel,  therefore,  probably  passed  from  America  to  the 
Old  World  in  late  Pliocene  or  Post-Pliocene  times. 

The  Cervid^E,  or  the  deer,  abounded  in  Europe 
in  Miocene  times,  but  appear  in  North  and  South 
America  only  in  the  later  Pliocene  and  Post-Pliocene 
periods. 

True  oxen,  also,  while  appearing  in  India  in  Mio- 
cene time,  do  not  appear  in  Europe  until  the  Pliocene 
period,  and  in  America  not  until  the  Post-Pliocene 
period. 

The  Elephantidn[',  which  are  represented  at  the 
present    time    by    only    two    species,    the   African    and 


350  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  Indian,  formerly  ranged  over  the  whole  Palae- 
arctfc  and  Nearctic  regions,  fourteen  species  of  the 
elephant  and  a  still  larger  number  of  mastodons  having 
become  extinct.  In  Europe  and  Central  India  they 
go  back  to  Pliocene  times,  and  in  India  to  the  upper 
Miocene;  while  in  America  the  elephant  is  limited  to 
Post-Pliocene  times,  though  the  mastodon  appeared  in 
the  Pliocene  period.  In  Europe  the  mastodon  appeared 
in  the  upper  Miocene,  and  in  India  still  earlier.  From 
the  distribution  of  this  family  it  is  clear  that  they 
originated  in  the  Old  World,  and  migrated  to  Amer- 
ica during  that  elevation  of  land  which  characterized 
the  latter  part  of  the  Pliocene  period. 

Thus  everything  points  to  the  Eastern  continent, 
and  to  be  more  particular  to  the  southern  part  of 
Asia,  as  the  place  from  w^hich  the  immediate  ances- 
tors of  the  most  highly  specialized  animals  associated 
with  man  had  their  origin  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
Pliocene  period.  With  the  elevation  of  land  which 
characterized  that  period,  easy  routes  of  migration 
were  opened  to  Northwestern  Europe  and  through 
Northeastern  Asia  to  North  America.  There  can  be 
scarcely  any  doubt  that  these  were  the  routes  fol- 
lowed by  the  mastodon,  whose  remains  are  found  so 
widely  scattered  over  the  whole  Northern  Hemisphere. 
But  the  yev}'  conditions  which  in  the  latter  part  of  the 


Glacial  Alan   in   Central  Asia  351 

Pliocene  period  favored  this  wide  distribution  of  the 
animals  which  originated  in  the  Palasarctic  region  also 
brought  on  the  Glacial  epoch,  and  in  consequence  a 
reversal  of  all  the  conditions  which  have  favored 
the  existence  of  a  large  number  of  highly  special- 
ized animal  species.  In  consequence,  as  we  may  be- 
lieve, of  the  widespread  elevation  of  land  which 
joined  the  continents  together  during  that  period, 
the  Glacial  epoch  came  on,  and  produced  temporary 
Isolation  of  species  both  by  the  reduction  of  tempera- 
ture and  by  the  subsequent  depression  of  the  land  so 
as  again  to  separate  the  continents  even  more  widely 
than  they  are  now  separated.  Man  alone  has  been 
able  to  overcome  these  obstacles  presented  by  the  Gla- 
cial epoch  and  pass  from  one  region  to  the  other 
across  both  the  climatic  and  the  oceanic  barriers.  (See 
maps  on  pp.   161,   173.) 

A  study  of  the  earliest  known  centers  of  human 
development  and  their  relation  to  the  changing  con- 
ditions which  characterized  the  Post-Pliocene  period 
also  leads  us,  as  w^e  have  seen,  to  Central  and  West- 
ern Asia  as  the  center  where  the  races  of  mankind 
were  first  developed  and  from  which  they  have  mi- 
grated to  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  also  indicates 
late  Pliocene  or  early  Post-Pliocene  times  as  the 
period  of  the  earliest  development  of  the  species.     It 


352  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

is  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  in  the  southern 
border  of  the  Aral-Caspian  depression  that  we  find 
the  earliest  traces  of  civilization,  whose  antiquity  is. 
reckoned  approximately  as  ten  thousand  years.  At 
that  time  cities  of  considerable  importance  had  arisen 
in  both  these  centers,  a  large  number  of  the  most 
useful  animals  and  plants  had  been  domesticated,  and 
most  of  the  important  arts  necessary  for  human  wel- 
fare had  been  evolved. 

The  study  of  language  leads  us  to  the  same  center 
of  original  dispersion.  The  Aryan  tongues,  in  all 
probability,  originated  in  the  oases  which  spread  out 
from  the  base  of  the  mountains  which  form  the  south- 
ern border  of  the  Aral-Caspian  depression.  From 
here,  in  prehistoric  times,  Ar^^an-speaking  tribes  mi- 
grated to  Persia  and  India  on  the  one  side,  and  on 
the  other  to  Russia  and  the  rest  of  Europe.  This 
also  seems  to  have  been  the  center  of  dispersal  for  the 
tribes  using  the  agglutinative  forms  of  speech.  For 
these  tongues  are  still  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the 
region  between  the  Ural  and  the  Altai  mountains 
and  very  naturally  spread  to  Finland  on  the  one  side, 
and  on  the  other  to  the  shores  of  America,  and  to 
various  places  in   Eastern  and  Southern  Asia. 

From  the  earliest  times  there  have  gone  forth  from 
this  center  migrations  of  men,  marking  epochs  in  the 


Glacial  Man   in   Central  Asia  353 

world's  history.  The  conquests  of  Genghis  Khan 
and  Timur  the  Tartar,  and  the  invasions  of  Europe 
by  the  l\irks  and  the  Huns  are  more  recent  examples 
of  these   movements. 

Ethnologists  have  been  led  to  similar  conclusions 
from  study  of  the  relation  of  different  races  to  a 
common  center.  Following  is  a  statement  of  Quat- 
refages  upon  this  point. 

"  We  know  that  in  Asia  there  is  a  vast  region 
bounded  on  the  south  and  south-west  by  the  Hima- 
la^-as,  on  the  west  by  the  Bolor  mountains,  on  the 
north-west  by  the  Ala-Tau,  on  the  north  by  the  Altai 
range  and  its  offshoots,  on  the  east  by  the  Kingkhan, 
on  the  south  and  south-east  by  the  Felina  and  Kuen- 
Loun.  Judging  from  the  present  state  of  things, 
this  great  central  region  might  be  regarded  as  having 
contained  the  cradle  of  the  human  species. 

"  In  fact,  the  three  fundamental  types  of  all  the  hu- 
man races  are  represented  in  the  populations  grouped 
around  this  region.  The  black  races  are  the  furthest 
removed  from  it.  but  have,  nevertheless,  marine  sta- 
tions, where  we  find  them  either  pure  or  as  mixed 
races,  from  the  Kioussiou  to  the  Andaman  Islands. 
Upon  the  continent  they  have  intermixed  with  almost 
even-  inferior  caste  and  class  of  the  two  peninsulas 
of  the  Ganges;  they  are  still  found  pure  in  both,  as- 


354  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

cend  as  high  as  Nepaul,  and  extend  west  as  far  as 
the  Persian  Gulf  and  Lake  Zareh,  according  to  El- 
phinstone. 

"  The  yellow  race,  either  pure  or  in  place  mixed 
with  white  elements,  seems  to  be  the  only  one  which 
occupies  the  space  in  question ;  it  peoples  all  the  north, 
east,  south-east,  and  w^st.  In  the  south  it  Is  more 
mixed,  but  forms,  nevertheless,  an  important  element 
in  the  population. 

"  The  white  race,  from  its  allophylian  representa- 
tives, seems  to  have  disputed  the  central  area  itself 
with  the  yellow  race.  In  early  times,  we  find  the 
Yu-tchi  and  the  Ou-soun  to  the  north  of  the  Hoang- 
ho;  and  in  the  present  day  cases  of  white  populations 
have  been  observed  in  Little  Thibet  and  in  Eastern 
Thibet.  The  Miao-Tse  occupy  the  mountain  region 
of  China;  the  Slaputh  are  proof  against  all  attack  in 
the  gorges  of  the  Bolor.  Upon  the  confines  of  this 
area  we  meet  with  the  Ainos  and  the  Japanese  of 
high  caste,  the  Tinguianes  of  the  Philippine  Islands; 
in  the  south  with  the  Hindoos.  In  the  south-wTSt 
and  west  the  white  element,  either  pure  or  mixed, 
reigns  supreme. 

"  No  other  region  of  the  globe  presents  a  similar 
union  of  extreme  human  types  distributed  round  a 
common  centre."  - 


Glaiial  Man   In   Central  Asia  355 

At  the  present  time  a  population  of  many  millions 
is  supported  upon  the  belt  of  irrigated  land  which 
borders  the  vast  mountain  systems  which  for  thou- 
sands of  miles  stretch  along  the  south  side  of  the 
Aral-Caspian  depression.  The  water  for  the  needed 
irrigation  is  afforded  by  innumerable  streams  large 
and  small  which  come  down  from  the  mountain 
ranges,  and  which,  in  many  cases,  are  fed  by  gla- 
ciers still  existing  at  all  heights  above  the  twelve 
thousand-foot  line.  In  every  case  these  streams  either 
disappear  in  the  desert  or  end  in  land-locked  basins 
like  Lake  Balkash  and  the  Aral  Sea.  Among  the 
larger  streams  are  the  Hi,  the  Chu,  the  Syr  Daria 
(ancient  Jaxartes),  the  Amu  Daria  (ancient  Oxus), 
the  Murgab,  the  Tejend,  and  the  Atrek,  with  thou- 
sands of  smaller  ones  all  descending  from  the  north- 
ern slopes  of  the  vast  bordering  mountain  system; 
while  in  the  interior  there  is  the  Tarim  River  with 
its  numerous  tributaries  ending  in  Lob  Nor;  and  on 
the  south  the  Indus  carrying  fertility  to  the  Punjab; 
besides  innumerable  streams  of  less  individual  im- 
portance deploying  over  the  plains  of  Persia. 

To  appreciate  the  natural  attractiveness  of  this  re- 
gion it  is  necessary  only  to  refer  to  what  Strabo 
writes  concerning  Hyrcania,  through  which  the  River 
Atrek  flows  to  empty  into  the  Caspian  Sea.     On  ac- 


356  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

count  of  its  fertility  and  genial  climate  it  is  described 
as  "  highly  favored  of  heaven  " ;  where  a  single  vine 
had  been  known  to  produce  nine  gallons  of  wine,  and 
a  single  fig  tree  ninety  bushels  of  figs;  while  grain 
did  not  require  to  be  sow^n,  but  sprang  up  from  what 
failed  to  be  gleaned  in  previous  years. 

GLACIAL    HISTORY    OF    CENTRAL    ASIA 

But  it  is  only  a  study  of  the  succession  of  events 
connected  with  the  Glacial  epoch  which  can  reveal 
the  former  possibilities  of  this  region  and  the  physical 
changes  which  have  taken  place  in  it  calculated  first 
to  stimulate  man's  micntal  activities  and  secondly  to 
force  his  migration  to  other  parts  of  the  world. 

Considering  the  extent  of  the  glacial  ice  sheets  in 
North  America  and  Europe  it  was  a  great  surprise 
to  find  that  Northern  Siberia  had  never  been  invaded 
by  glacial  ice.  This,  however,  was  scarcely  more 
surprising  than  the  fact  previously  discovered  that 
Alaska  north  of  the  mountains  w^hich  border  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean  showed  no  signs  of  general  glaciation. 
In  both  regions,  however,  the  soil  is  still  deeply 
frozen,  the  frost  penetrating  at  Yakutsk  to  a  depth 
of  six  hundred  feet,  while  both  in  Siberia  and  Alaska 
stagnant  ice  is  prevalent  over  large  areas,  in  many 
cases   beins;   buried    bv   a   few   feet   of  soil   on   which 


Glm-idl  Man   in   Central  Asia  357 

flourishes  an  abundant  vey^ctation,  the  ice  serving  as 
a  rock.  The  effect  of  the  sun  and  the  warmth  of 
summer  is  felt  only  a  few  inches  beU)w  tlie  surface, 
and  yet  even  so  it  is  suflficient  to  support  a  growth 
of  trees,  shrubs,  and  other  vegetation  which  is  am- 
ple for  the  sustenance  of  a  great  variety  of  animal 
species.^ 

In  Northeastern  Siberia  it  would  seem  that  the  con- 
ditions were  somewhat   the   same   during  the  Glacial 
epoch  as  they  were  in  Alaska.     According  to  my  own 
observations,   there  were  no  extensive  glaciers  coming 
down  from  the  Vitim  Plateau,  either  to  the  east  Into 
the  Chita  Valley,   or  to  the  southwest,   into  the  val- 
leys of  the  Uda  and  Selenga  rivers;  w^hile,  according 
to  Professor  Schmidt,  who  has  made  extensive  explor- 
ations in  the  region,  there  are  no  certain  signs  of  gla- 
cial action  In  the  Yablonol  Mountains.    Farther  north, 
how^ever.   In   the   latitude  of   Okhotsk,    there   are,    ac- 
cording to  Professor  Tschernyschev,  indications  of  an 
extensive    glacial    occupation    of   the    Stanovol    Moun- 
tains   above    the    sixtieth    parallel    of    latitude;    while 
there    are    extensive    areas    of    stagnant    Ice    over    the 
lower  part  of  the  Lena  Valley  and  In  the  Arctic  Lit- 
toral, and  upon  the  New  Siberian  Islands  from  which 
so  many  remains  of  the  mammoth  have  been  derived. 
Baron  Toll  speaks  of  this  as  a  "  fossil  glacier,"  sup- 


358  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

posing,  it  would  seem,  that  there  had  been  a  move- 
ment of  ice  from  the  continent  to  these  islands.  It  has 
been  shown  by  Dr.  A.  C.  Lane,  however,  that  where 
the  average  summer  and  winter  temperature  is  that 
of  Yakutsk,  frost  would  in  time  penetrate  to  a  depth 
of  six  hundred  feet. 

At  the  present  time  numerous  glaciers  exist  both  in 
the  Tian  Shan  and  Altai  mountains.  An  ice  cap  cov- 
ers the  summit  of  Khan-tengri,  which  rises  to  a  height 
of  twenty-four  thousand  feet,  and  projects  glaciers 
down  upon  all  sides  through  the  various  river  troughs 
to  a  level  of  about  twelve  thousand  feet.  Another 
glacial  center  is  about  one  hundred  miles  to  the  west 
directly  south  of  the  east  end  of  Issyk-kul,  from 
which  glacial  streams  descend  both  into  the  Tarim 
basin  and  into  the  Naryn  River,  which  flows  into  the 
Syr  Daria.  Another  glacial  center  of  considerable  ex- 
tent is  found  just  south  of  Verni,  in  the  Western 
Ala-tau  range.  From  this,  glacial  streams  are  sent 
forth  both  into  the  headwaters  of  the  Hi  and  of  the 
Chu.  Still  another  glacial  center  along  the  main 
range  of  the  Tian  Shan  Mountains  is  found  south  of 
Aulieata,  from  which  perennial  streams  flow  north 
into  the  Talas,  and  south  into  the  Chatkal,  which 
flows  past  Tashkent. 

Still  another  center  of  glaciers  is  found  in  the  Alai 


Glacial  Man   in   Central  Asia  359 

Tagh  range  between  Kokand  and  the  upper  basin  of 
the  Syr  Daria  and  the  Waghesh  River,  one  of  the 
head  tributaries  of  the  Amu  Daria,  forming  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  the  Pamir.  There  are  as  many  as 
four  of  these,  covering  the  summits  above  ten  thou- 
sand feet,  from  which  perennial  streams  flow  into 
both  the  Amu  Daria  and  the  Syr  Daria,  and  from 
the  western  one  into  the  Zerafshan,  which  waters  the 
valley  of  Samarkand   and   Bokhara. 

South  of  the  Waghesh  in  the  Pamir,  Mount  Kauf- 
mann  (22,500  feet)  and  Mustagh  Ata  (25,800  feet), 
together  with  two  or  three  other  peaks  rising  to  an 
elevation  of  nearly  twenty  thousand  feet,  sustain  gla- 
ciers of  considerable  extent. 

In  the  Altai  Mountains,  though  the  elevation  is 
nowhere  much  above  eleven  thousand  feet,  glaciers 
are  still  found  which  would  compare  favorably  with 
those  in  the  Alps. 

But,  as  already  stated,  though  the  glaciers  of  Cen- 
tral Asia  and  Siberia  never  descended  far  enough  to 
become  confluent  upon  the  plains  w^hich  spread  out 
from  the  base  of  the  mountains^  as  in  Switzerland 
the  glaciers  of  the  Alps  filled  the  valleys  on  either 
side,  there  was  a  great  extension  of  glaciers  during 
the  Glacial  epoch.  Professors  William  M.  Davis  and 
Ellsworth    Huntington  ^    in    crossing    the    Tian    Shan 


360  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Mountains  encountered  extensive  moraines  upon  both 
sides  of  the  range  at  an  approximate  level  of  seven 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  which  is  five  thousand 
feet  iow'er  than  glaciers  of  these  mountains  descend 
at  the  present  time.  The  significance  of  these  facts 
will  be  discussed  later  after  giving  the  data  more  in 
detail  concerning  the  spread  of  man  over  Northern 
Asia  during  the  Glacial  epoch  in  company  with  va- 
rious extinct  animal  associates  especially  the  mam- 
moth. 

MAN    AND    THE    MAMMOTH 

The  association  of  man  with  the  mammoth  in  their 
wanderings  over  the  Northern  Hemisphere  presents 
many  difficult  and  important  problems  connected  with 
the  physical  conditions  which  favored  their  original 
migrations,  but  which  in  the  end  proved  fatal  to  the 
mammoth.  The  evidence  of  the  coexistence  of  man 
and  this  species  of  elephant  is  found  in  all  parts  of 
the  north  temperate  zone.  In  Western  Europe,  not 
only  are  the  bones  of  the  mammoth  and  palaeolithic 
implements  found  together  in  high-level  river  gravels 
and  in  caves,  but  the  forms  of  tlie  animal  were  pic- 
tured by  man  on  slabs  of  stone  and  pieces  of  bone 
with  a  high  degree  of  artistic  skill.  In  Russia  and 
Siberia,  stone  implements  and  mammoth  remains  are 
found    in    close   juxtaposition.      In    the    valley   of   the 


Glacial  Man   in   Central  .Isia  ^6 1 

Obi,  near  Tomsk,  the  implements  were  found  in  con- 
nection with  bones  representing  an  entire  skeleton, 
some  of  them  showing  tliat  they  had  been  split  by 
man  for  the  extraction  of  the  marrow.  In  America, 
the  mammoth  also  was  occasionally  sketched  on  stone 
by  the  aborigines,  and  mounds  were  made  to  represent 
the  form  of  the  animal.  The  evidence  is  also  indu- 
bitable that  the  mammoth  long  survived  the  close  of 
the  Glacial  epoch,  since  his  remains  are  frequently 
found  in  post-glacial  peat  bogs  and  quagmires.  He 
was  not  killed  by  cold  but  by  warmth. 

It  is  in  Siberia  and  the  adjoining  islands  that  the 
most  startling  facts  concerning  the  histon^  of  this  an- 
imal have  been  brought  to  light.  So  abundant  are 
his  remains  in  that  region  that  the  principal  industry 
along  the  northern  rivers  and  on  the  New  Siberian 
Islands  has  been  the  ivory  trade.'^  An  idea  of  the 
enormous  number  of  the  remains  can  be  gained  from 
some  of  the  reports  on  the  ivory  exported.  In  1840 
Middendorff  calculated  that  during  the  previous  two 
hundred  years,  20,000  mammoths  had  been  discov- 
ered. Reclus  speaks  of  the  annual  output  of  ivory 
as  fifteen  tons,  which  represents  the  tusks  of  about 
two  hundred  animals;  while  Stadling  says  that  at  the 
present  time  there  are  seventeen  tons  of  ivory  taken 
out  annually  in  the  Yakutsk  district  alone. 


362  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

To  add  to  the  interest  of  the  subject  we  must  be 
content  with  a  single  illustration.  A  perfect  specimen 
of  the  mammoth  was  discovered  and  brought  to  St. 
Petersburg  in  1900  by  Messrs.  Herz  and  Tolmat- 
schow.®  From  the  position  in  which  the  carcass  was 
found  it  appears  that  the  animal  "  died  during  the 
pleasant  occupation  of  feeding.  He  probably  rolled 
off  a  precipice  while  reaching  out  for  a  coveted  branch 
or  plant;  the  position  of  his  forelegs  shows  that  almost 
to  a  certainty.  ...  In  gliding  down  the  mountain-side, 
the  animal's  hind  legs  were  forced  into  a  horizontal 
position  and  got  under  his  body,  which  circumstance 
made  it  completely  impossible  for  the  mammoth  to 
raise  himself  by  his  own  efforts. 

"  The  impromptu  grave  into  which  the  animal 
plunged  was  made  of  sand  and  clay,  and  his  fall  prob- 
ably caused  masses  of  neighboring  soil  to  loosen  and 
cover  him  completely.  This  happened  in  the  late  fall, 
or  beginning  of  winter,  to  judge  by  the  vegetable 
matter  found  in  the  stomach;  at  any  rate,  shortly 
afterward,  the  grave  became  flooded,  ice  following. 
This  completed  the  cold  storage,  still  further  aug- 
mented by  vast  accumulations  of  soil  all  around  —  a 
shell  of  ice,  hundreds  of  feet  thick,  inclosed  by  yards 
upon  yards  of  soil,  that  remained  frozen  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  year.     Thus  the  enormous  carcass 


Mammoth   from   Siberia  mounted   in  the   Museum   at   St. 
Petersburg. 


This  mammoth  was  found  in  the  year  1900.  Its  skin 
and  skeleton  were  transported  to  St.  Petersburg  by  Mr.  I.  P. 
Tolmatschow.  The  carcass  was  at  the  bottom  of  a  steep 
slope  which  rises  to  a  height  of  170  feet  above  the  flood-plain 
of  the  Beresowka  River.  At  this  height  a  terrace  stretches 
back  for  half  a  mile,  where  the  land  rises  300  or  400  feet 
higher  to  the  general  level  of  a  forest-covered  plain.  The 
mammoth  was  completely  enveloped  in  the  frozen  soil  until 
washed  out  by  the  river.  The  appearance  was  as  if,  in 
stretching  out  to  reach  twigs,  he  tiad  slid  down  backward  in 
the  position  shown  in  the  illustration,  and  there  perished,  to 
be  frozen  into  the  accumulating  ice,  and  preserved  for  an  un- 
known   period    of   time. 


364  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

was  preserved,  for  how  long  no  one  knows."  (See 
illustrations  in  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  ii.  p.   315-) 

Foxes,  bears  and  wolves  devoured  most  of  the 
flesh,  but  the  stomach,  with  its  undigested  food,  was 
preserved.  The  hairy  covering  w^as  extremely  thick 
and  averaged  seven  inches  in  length,  and  the  mane 
was  three  or  four  feet  long.  Under  the  coarser  hair 
there  was  a  very  close  growth  of  wool,  like  that  which 
covers  a  young  camel.  Thus  the  animal  was  so  pro- 
tected that  he  w^ould  not  feel  even  the  extremest  cold. 
The  food  found  in  his  stomach  showed  that  his  diet 
had  largely  consisted  of  the  young  shoots  of  the  fir 
and  pine. 

Besides  the  mammoth  there  are  many  remains  of 
the  rhinoceros,  bison,  horse,  tiger,  saiga,  and  the 
wapiti,  found  in  such  positions  as  to  prove  without 
doubt  that  they  lived  where  they  were  found,  even  as 
far  north  as  74°  North  Latitude,  while  now  none  of 
them  live  north  of  60°  North  Latitude. 

The  distribution  of  the  mammoth  and  his  final 
extinction  have  been  the  occasion  for  a  multitude  of 
theories  concerning  the  climatic  conditions  of  the 
Northern  Hemisphere  during  Pleistocene  times.  This 
much  Is  certain  that  the  climate  was  more  mild  and 
equable  in  Northern  Siberia  during  the  time  they 
maintained  existence  there  than  at  present.    The  stom- 


Glacial  Man   in   Central   Asia  365 

achs  of  some  of  the  mammoths  which  have  been  dis- 
covered contained  leaves  of  trees  whose  present  habitat 
is  hundreds  of  miles  south  of  the  locality  where  the 
animals  perished  ;  while  the  i!;reat  abundance  of  their 
remains  in  the  New  Siberian  Islands  renders  it  certain 
that  at  one  time  within  the  period  of  their  existence 
there  was  a  continental  elevation  sufficient  to  provide 
land  connection  between  these  islands  and  Siberia.  It 
is  clear,  therefore,  that  great  physical  changes  have 
taken  place  in  Northern  Asia  since  its  joint  occupa- 
tion by  man  and  this  unwieldy  species  of  elephant. 

But  so  many  complicated  causes  conspire  on  the  one 
hand  to  favor  the  life  of  a  species  and  on  the  other 
to  bring  about  its  extinction  that  it  is  difficult  to  un- 
tangle them  and  estimate  the  individual  effect  of  each 
conspiring  cause.  Of  one  thing,  however,  we  are  cer- 
tain, that  the  main  cause  has  been  the  changing  climate 
of  the  Glacial  epoch.  This  epoch  originated  new^  con- 
ditions of  life  which  acted  in  innumerable  ways  both 
to  favor  and  destroy  it.  The  continental  elevations 
connected  with  its  inception  enlarged  the  land  areas 
about  the  arctic  circle,  and  thus  favored  an  increase 
in  numbers  and  opened  the  way  for  extensive  migra- 
tions. In  certain  localities,  however,  as  in  the  South- 
ern United  States  and  in  Europe,  the  advancing  ice 
limited   the  habitable   areas  and   produced  overcrowd- 


366  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ing.  To  a  still  greater  extent  overcrowding  was 
caused  by  the  continental  depression  of  land  at  the 
close  of  the  Glacial  epoch ;  while  the  vast  glacial  floods 
which  poured  forth  from  the  melting  ice  must  have 
been  destructive  to  a  high  degree.  All  these  changes 
brought  on  successively  a  new  adjustment  of  animal 
species  to  one  another,  during  which  now  one  enemy 
was  favored  and  now  another.  In  short,  the  host  of 
indirect  causes  brought  in  operation  by  such  changed 
conditions  as  are  connected  with  the  Glacial  epoch  are 
beyond  calculation.  Still  the  facts  are  such  that  careful 
study  of  them  points  to  Conclusions  which  are  of  some 
help  in  solving  the  main  problem  relating  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  man  and  the  animals  associated  with  him 
during  the  prehistoric  period,  and  permits  us  with  some 
confidence  to  present  a  provisional  theory  respecting 
the  succession  of  events  connected  with  man's  occupa- 
tion of  Central  Asia  and  the  surrounding  region  in 
prehistoric  times. 

PROVISIONAL    THEORY 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  it  was  soon  after  the 
culmination  of  the  Glacial  epoch  that  the  conditions 
in  Central  Asia  were  most  favorable  for  the  support 
of  a  dense  population  both  of  animals  and  man ;  for 
it  was  at  that  time  that  the  oases  on  every  side  were 


Glacial  Man   in   Central  Asia  367 

expanded  to  their  greatest  extent,  and  that  the  ch'niate 
was  most  salubrious.  The  more  ice  there  was  to  melt 
upon  the  mountain  heights,  the  larger  the  streams 
which  sent  their  life-giving  waters  to  the  fertile  belt 
of  soil  spreading  out  in  every  direction  from  the  base 
of  the  mountains.  Of  the  former  enlargement  of  all 
these  streams  there  is  abundant  evidence.  The  river 
Chu,  which  now  ends  in  an  insignificant  lake  in  the 
midst  of  the  desert,  formerly  overflowed  and  emptied 
into  the  Syr  Daria.  The  Syr  Daria  and  the  Amu 
Daria,  each  with  a  volume  of  water  at  the  present 
time  equal  to  that  of  Niagara,  wtrt  formerly  large 
enough  to  fill  the  Aral  Sea  to  overflowing,  and  pour 
an  immense  current  of  water  through  a  well-defined 
channel,  now  dry  (the  Usboy),  into  the  Caspian, 
while  the  Caspian  Sea  itself  overflowed  through  a 
channel  (the  Manytch),  only  a  few  feet  above  tide 
level,  into  the  Black  Sea. 

The  fertility  given  by  the  Nile  to  Egypt  is  even 
now  insignificant  compared  with  that  which  is  poured 
upon  Central  Asia  by  the  innumerable  melting  gla- 
ciers nourished  at  the  more  than  Alpine  heights  which 
look  down  upon  the  region  from  every  side.  The 
overflow  of  the  Nile  is  dependent  upon  the  seasonal 
rainfall  in  Central  Africa  and  is  liable  to  be  inter- 
rupted by  the  accumulation  of  debris  in  the  outlets  of 


368  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  great  interior  lakes  of  the  continent.  But  in 
Central  Asia  the  supply  of  water,  such  as  it  is,  is  un- 
failing, being  kept  in  cold  storage  perpetually  until  it 
is  liberated  by  the  progressive  heat  of  the  summers; 
while  the  area  w^hich  can  be  rendered  fertile  by  irri- 
gation is  many  times  greater  than  that  of  Egypt.  But 
during  the  Glacial  epoch  this  area  was  immensely  in- 
creased. 

For  it  is  evident  that  the  irrigated  belt  at  the  base 
of  the  mountains  of  the  Aral-Caspian  depression  must 
vary  in  size  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  glaciers 
in  the  mountains,  and  to  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
are  melting.  Thus  the  period  just  subsequent  to  the 
climax  of  the  Glacial  epoch  would  w^itness  the  great- 
est extension  of  the  irrigated  belt  in  Central  Asia,  and 
furnish  the  conditions  most  favorable  for  the  support 
of  a  large  population.  But,  at  the  same  time  that  con- 
ditions were  so  favorable  for  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion in  this  region,  they  were  absolutely  prohibitive 
of  the  existence  of  man  in  what  are  now  the  most 
fertile  portions  of  Europe.  When  the  enlarged  gla- 
ciers in  the  Tian  Shan  and  Hindu  Kush  mountains 
were  pouring  their  life-giving  streams  into  the  alluvial 
plains  of  Turkestan,  vast  accumulations  of  glacial  ice 
rested  over  Russia,  Scandinavia,  Northern  Germany, 
the  British  Isles,  and  Switzerland. 


Glacial  Man  in  Central  Asia  369 

Hut  the  decline  of  the  period  reversed  these  condi- 
tions. As  the  ghiciers  diminished  in  the  mountains  of 
Central  Asia,  the  irrigating  streams  which  flowed 
from  them  were  gradually  bereft  of  their  full  supply 
of  water.  The  oases  fed  by  these  streams  became  con- 
tracted in  their  areas,  and  the  whole  irrigated  belt  at 
the  base  of  the  mountains  grew-  narrower.  The  nat- 
ural effect  of  all  this  w^as  to  intensify  the  struggle 
for  existence,  both  among  the  plants  and  am'mals,  in- 
cluding man,  and  to  compel  migration. 

Fortunately  the  same  causes  which  wrought  this 
destruction  in  Central  Asia  opened  up  the  most  fer- 
tile portions  of  Europe,  and  invited  their  occupation. 
As  the  glaciers  diminished  in  the  mountains  of  Central 
Asia  the  ice  withdrew  from  the  plains  of  Southern 
Russia  and  Northern  Germany,  opening  there  oppor- 
tunities for  man  to  reach  the  highest  attainments  of 
civilization.  In  America  the  field  exposed  by  the 
melting  away  of  the  glacial  ice  remained  hid  for  a 
longer  time.  But  now  the  glacial  deposits  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  and  the  Red  River  of  the  North  are 
filling  the  granaries  from  which  city  populations  the 
world  over  will  draw  their  food  supplies  for  centuries 
to  come. 

At  first  thought  it  might  appear  that  the  climatic 
conditions  during  the  Glacial  epoch   in   Central  Asia 


370  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

would  have  been  unfavorable  for  man.  This,  how- 
ever, was  by  no  means  the  case.  The  Glacial  epoch 
was  not  merely  one  of  a  depression  of  temperature, 
but  was  still  more  a  period  of  increased  precipitation, 
since  an  increase  of  snowfall  is  more  effective  for  the 
extension  of  a  glacier  than  is  a  decline  in  the  temper- 
ature. Central  Asia,  at  the  present  time,  is  handi- 
capped by  an  insufficient  rainfall.  Over  the  lower 
areas  only  a  few  inches  of  rain  fall  in  each  year.  Be- 
sides, the  extremes  of  temperature  are  almost  unbear- 
able. While  the  thermometer  rises  on  the  plains  of 
Turkestan  to  130°  F.  in  summer,  it  descends  to  the 
freezing  point  of  mercury  in  the  winter,  all  due  to 
the  dryness  of  the  atmosphere.  As  it  is,  the  popula- 
tion is  compelled  to  seek  shelter  in  the  base  of  the 
mountains  both  from  the  heat  of  summer  and  from  the 
cold  of  winter.  The  moist  climatic  conditions  which 
brought  on  the  Glacial  epoch  must  have  spread  a 
most  grateful  amelioration  of  both  the  summer  and 
the  winter  climate  over  these  now  arid  regions.  In 
short,  it  is  no  unwarranted  stretch  of  the  imagination 
to  conceive  of  this  region  as  the  original  paradise  of 
the  human  race. 


The   Physio/oi^nral  An^ufnent  371 

CHAPTER    XII 

THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL  ARGUMENT 

The  numerous  physiological  facts  bearing  upon  the 
mode  of  man's  origin  and  the  antiquity  of  his  histor}^ 
though  complicated  and  difficult  of  interpretation, 
cannot  be  passed  by  without  notice.  But  in  weigh- 
ing the  argument  drawn  from  them,  we  shall  be 
compelled  to  move  with  peculiar  circumspection,  both 
from  the  danger  of  converting  a  mere  analogy  into 
an  argument,  and  from  fear  of  being  unduly  influ- 
enced by  various  natural  but  ill-founded  prejudices. 

The  great  difficulty  in  reasoning  upon  the  physio- 
logical facts  bearing  upon  the  question  is  that  we  have 
no  satisfactory  knowledge  either  of  the  rate  at  w^hich 
changes  have  taken  place  in  nature  or  of  the  extent 
to  which  they  may  proceed  through  the  action  of  resi- 
dent forces.  A  generation  or  two  ago  the  unity  of 
the  human  race  was  vigorously  questioned.  To  the 
physiologists  of  that  time  the  differences  between  the 
various  races  of  men  seemed  so  great  and  so  persistent 
that  it  passed  the  bounds  of  their  comprehension  that 
these  should  have  had  a  common  origin.  In  color  of 
skin,  in  texture  of  hair,  in  shape  of  skull,  and  in  the 


372  Origin  a  fid  Antiquity  of  Man 

development  and  adjustment  of  various  bones  in  the 
frame,   there   is   such    diversity   between   the    races   of 
mankind,  and  these  diversities  are  traced  back  to  such 
an   early  period,  —  having   been   found   to   exist   even 
at  the  earliest  daw^n  of  history,  —  that  it  seemed  in- 
credible that  they  could  have  had  the  same  ancestry. 
But  now  that  through  the  work  of  Darwin  and  his 
followers  even  the  natural  differentiation  of  a  genus 
into  species  has  become  not  only  conceivable,  but  the 
belief  in  it  an  essential  part  of  our  mental  furniture, 
no  one  would  think  of  denying  a  common  origin  to 
the  human  races  by  reason  of  the  superficial  differences 
which  separate  them   from   one  another.     Two  ques- 
tions,   however,    are   not   so    easily    answ^ered    by    the 
thoroughgoing   Darwinian.      The   first   relates   to   the 
length  of  time  required,  on  that  theory,  for  the  orig- 
inal race  of  man  to  have  become  so  diversified  as  we 
find    him    at    the    dawn    of  history.     Even    the  oldest 
Egyptian  monuments  which  contain  representations  of 
the  human  form  show  that  the  Negro  race  was  then 
characterized    by    its   w^ll-known    features,   while   the 
Egyptian   and   Semitic  features  were  as  characteristic 
of  the  ruling   races  then   as   they  were  at  the  begin- 
ning of   the   Christian   era.      At   first,   one   might   be 
tempted   to   solve   the   problem   by   applying  here   the 
simple  rule  of  three,  and  endeavoring  to  estimate  the 


The  Physiological  Argutnent 


3,15 


amount  of  change  which  has  taken  place  in  the  Ne- 
gro, the  Egyptian,  and  the  Semite  during  the  many 
centuries  which  have  elapsed  since  the  building  of  the 
pyramids,  and  then  estimating  how  far  back,  at  a 
similar  rate,  we  should  have  to  go  to  find  the  com- 
mon stock.  But  apparently  this  would  send  us  out 
upon  parallel  lines,  which  never  converge;  for,  so  far 
as  we  can  see,  there  are  absolutely  no  changes  in  the 
anatomical  and  physiological  characteristics  of  the 
race  since  the  earliest  monuments  were  decorated  w^ith 
their  features.  So  that,  from  considerations  of  this 
sort,  we  should  be  prepared  or  inclined  to  throw  the 
origin  of  man  far  back  into  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  years,  or  even  to  place  it  in  a  distant  geo- 
logical period. 

Reflection,  however,  will  lead  us  to  hesitate  about 
committing  ourselves  to  such  a  result.  That  doctrine 
of  evolution  which  best  adjusts  itself  to  both  the 
geological  and  the  biological  facts  of  the  world,  is 
one  which  admits  of  paroxysmal  development  at  cer- 
tain epochs  of  progress.  There  is  nothing  inconsistent 
in  rapidity  of  change  in  certain  conditions  at  the 
same  time  that  there  is  fixity  of  character  for  long 
periods  at  other  times.  It  is  easy  to  see  that,  with 
continuity  of  development,  the  ordinary  course  of 
things  may  at  certain  periods  be  interrupted  so  as  to 


374  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

compel  a  rapid  readjustment  of  species  to  their  sur- 
roundings. For  instance,  a  slow  subsidence  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  might  proceed  for  centuries  with- 
out subjecting  the  marine  life  upon  the  opposite  shores 
of  the  isthmus  to  any  specially  new  conditions;  but 
when  this  subsidence  has  proceeded  a  little  farther, 
so  that  there  is  a  commingling  of  the  w^aters,  the  spe- 
cies upon  both  sides  of  the  continent  w'\\\  immedi- 
ately be  compelled  to  struggle  for  existence  amid 
many  new  conditions  of  life.  New  species  peculiar 
to  the  Atlantic  side  will  commence  a  struggle  for 
existence  with  those  that  have  been  developed  in  the 
waters  of  the  Pacific.  The  stability  of  species  arising 
from  the  long-continued  uniformity  of  conditions  in 
the  midst  of  which  they  had  come  into  existence, 
would  suddenly  be  broken  up  by  the  necessity  of 
adapting  themselves  to  the  changed  environment,  and 
of  maintaining  themselves  in  the  presence  of  new 
competitors. 

For,  it  is  not  possible  to  maintain  a  theory  of  evo- 
lution without  putting  forward  changes  of  environ- 
ment as  the  principal  factor  determining  the  rapidity 
of  changes  which  take  place  in  the  organism  in  its 
struggle  to  maintain  existence.  When  an  organism 
becomes  adapted  to  its  conditions,  all  abnormal 
changes  are  a  disadvantage.     The  very  idea  of  adap- 


The  Physiolorrical  Arr^unirnt  375 

tation  implies  stability  of  conditions  as  related  to  the 
physiological  changes  which  take  place  in  the  strug- 
gling organism.  But  at  once,  upon  a  change  of  con- 
ditions of  any  kind  or  degree,  some  variations  which 
in  a  previous  condition  had  been  abnormal  will  now 
become  normal,  that  is,  specially  adapted  to  the  new- 
sphere  of  conditions.  For  example:  if  the  vegetation 
of  a  country  has  become  adjusted  to  a  rainfall  of 
forty  inches  pretty  evenly  distributed  over  the  year, 
all  those  variations  by  which  it  might  adjust  itself 
to  greater  or  less  degrees  of  humidity  will  be  dis- 
advantageous, and  there  will  be  little  change  so  long 
as  present  conditions  continue;  but  if,  from  any 
cause,  the  climate  becomes  arid,  at  once  there  begins 
a  rapid  substitution  of  those  plants  which  vary  in 
directions  better  adapted  to  the  drier  climate.  The 
change  from  one  type  of  plants  to  another  would  be 
almost  as  rapid  as  the  change  in  conditions.  This  is 
brought  about,  however,  not  by  any  direct  effect  of 
the  conditions  upon  the  organism,  but  by  that  inevit- 
able sifting  process  which  remorselessly  suffers  the 
ill-adapted  variations  to  go  to  w^aste,  and  infallibly 
preserves  from  destruction  the  variations  adapted  to 
the  new  conditions. 

From   these  considerations   it   follows  that,   even   if 
we  admit  the  derivative  origin  of  the  human   race  so 


376  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

far  as  hfs  physical  organization  is  concerned,  we  have 
not  thereby  obtained  any  well-defined  means  of  de- 
termining the  date  of  his  origin.  Our  experience  of 
the  changeability  of  human  races  is  limited  to  that 
period  of  their  existence  in  which  there  is  peculiar 
stability  of  conditions.  This  stability,  however,  arises 
in  large  part  from  the  capacity  of  man  to  mold  the 
conditions  of  life  for  himself  through  the  marvellous 
power  of  his  mental  capacity.  Of  the  profound  and 
far-reaching  influences  of  the  reasoning  powers  of 
mankind  we  shall  speak  more  fully  in  a  subsequent 
chapter,  but  a  few  observations  upon  it  are  appropriate 
in   this  connection. 

In  remarking  upon  this  point,  it  is  important,  at  the 
outset,  to  observe  the  indeterminateness  of  the  under- 
lying principle  in  the  prevailing  theory  of  evolution. 
Herbert  Spencer  invented  the  happy  but  somewhat 
delusive  phrase  "  survival  of  the  fittest,"  and  the 
whole  theory  of  evolution  has  come  to  be  familiarly 
expressed  in  the  truism  that,  amid  any  change  of  con- 
ditions to  which  an  organism  is  subjected,  it  is  the 
fittest  only  which  will  survive.  From  this  most  ob- 
vious truth,  however,  many  fallacious  inferences  have 
been  draw^n.  It  has  been  tacitly  assumed  by  many 
that  this  was  a  doctrine  of  upward  progression,  lead- 
ing   by    inevitable    necessity    to    the    development    of 


The  Ph\'siolo<[ic(il  Afi^unicnt  377 

hiVlicr  and  better  and  more  noble  forms  of  life.  A 
moment's  reflection,  however,  will  show  that  this  is 
an  entirely  mistaken  view.  Whether  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  shall  be  the  survival  of  the  hij^her  and  bet- 
ter and  nobler-  forms  of  existence  depends  upon  the 
prior  question,  whether  the  conditions  of  life  have 
been  previously  arranged  by  creative  design  to  secure 
this  result. 

Atheism  can  have  no  theory  of  the  distant  future. 
It  is  well  nigh  impossible  for  any  one  to  study  the 
development  of  life  w^hich  has  actually  appeared  in 
the  world,  the  evidences  of  which  are  unfolded  to  us 
in  geological  strata,  without  being  convinced  that  the 
conditions  and  the  capacity  of  life  have  been  both 
created  and  adjusted  by  an  all-wise  and  benevolent 
Architect.  Whether  raw  cotton  when  thrown  in  at 
one  end  of  the  mill  w^ill  at  the  other  end  come  out  a 
web  of  cloth  depends  both  upon  the  adjustment  of  the 
machinery  and  upon  the  nature  of  the  material.  So, 
whether  life  w^hen  introduced  into  the  complex  ma- 
terial envir(5nment  of  the  world  shall  come  out  a 
higher  form  or  a  lower,  or  even  shall  escape  destruc- 
tion altogether,  depends  upon  such  an  adjustment  of 
all  the  existing  forces  as  demands  the  oversight  of  an 
infinite  Creator's  m.ind.  Whether,  again,  it  is  possi- 
ble for  the  web  of  life  to  be  w^oven  into  all  its  pat- 


378  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

terns  without  the  interference,  here  and  there,  of  that 
same  creative  power  which  initiated  the  movement,  is 
a  question  of  philosophy,  and  not  of  natural  science. 
Yet  it  is  one  which  the  man  of  science  is  by  no  means 
at  liberty  wholly  to  set  aside.  Indeed,  he  cannot  set 
it  aside,  except  by  committing  himself  to  a  philosophy 
of  creation  which  lies  entirely  outside  the  realm  of 
observation. 

The  essential  truth  in  the  modern  theor}^  of  evolu- 
tion is  the  continuity  of  life.  Evidently  the  principle 
of  life  which  has  been  introduced  into  the  complex 
mechanism  of  the  material  universe  is  extremely  plas- 
tic, and  capable  of  expressing  itself  in  an  almost  in- 
finite variety  of  material  forms  and  of  appropriating  an 
astonishing  range  of  material  forces.  Whether  the  moral 
and  higher  intellectual  powers  of  the  human  mind  are 
direct  outgrowths  of  this  original  principle  of  life,  or 
whether  it  is  more  philosophical  to  suppose  a  direct 
ingrafting  of  divinely  related  qualities  upon  the  high- 
est form  of  life  attained  by  natural  selection,  is  a 
question  which  we  shall  consider  more  fully  in  the 
chapter  upon  the  psychological  evidence  of  man's  ori- 
gin and  antiquity. 

The  point  for  us  to  consider  here  is  the  arrest  of 
development  in  the  physical  constitution  of  the  hu- 
man race  which  is  produced  by  the  enormous  enlarge- 


Till'  Physiological  Argunierit  379 

ment  of  man's  mental  powers,  which  are  his  crowning 
glory.  So  predominant  are  the  mental  powers  of  man 
over  his  physical  conditions,  that  it  becomes  at  once  the 
element  upon  which  natural  selection  fixes  for  the 
development  of  the  race.  With  man  knowledge  be- 
comes power.  He  knows  how  to  profit  from  the 
experiences  of  the  past.  He  protects  himself,  not  so 
much  by  instinct,  as  by  forethought,  against  heat,  and 
cold,  and  disease,  and  accident;  and  guards  himself 
against  enemies  of  all  kinds  by  widespread  political 
organization.  Through  irrigating  schemes  he  makes 
the  desert  blossom  like  the  rose.  By  dikes  and  drains 
he  protects  himself  from  the  inundation  of  streams, 
and  renders  the  malarious  lagoon  a  suitable  place  of 
habitation.  Through  the  invention  of  more  and  more 
effective  missiles  of  war,  and  the  perfection  of  mili- 
tary and  judicial  organizations,  the  weak  are  made 
strong,  and  vast  bodies  of  men  can  unite  their  strength 
and  act  as  a  unit  against  all  outward  enemies. 

The  effect  of  all  this  upon  the  physical  organiza- 
tion of  man  is  peculiar.  It  preserves  the  abnormally 
developed  brain,  rather  than  the  abnormally  devel- 
oped muscle.  If  David  w\as  superior  to  Goliath  by 
reason  of  his  skill  in  the  use  of  a  sling,  how  much 
more  is  Edison  superior  to  the  tall  tribes  of  Pata- 
gonia by  virtue  of  his  control   over  the   thunderbolts 


380  Origin  and  Antiquity   of  Man 

of  heaven!  Thus  in  a  thousand  ways  man's  inventive 
capacity  counteracts  natural  selection. 

Upon  comparing  the  bodily  structure  of  man  with 
that  of  the  higher  animals  associated  with  him,  the 
argument  in  favor  of  a  common  origin,  so  far  as 
physical  structure  is  concerned,  becomes  almost  over- 
whelming. Zoologically  considered,  man  does  not 
constitute  an  order  by  himself.  The  grounds  upon 
which  Blumenbach,  Cuvier,  and  others  have  given  to 
him  the  dignity  of  a  separate  order  are  mostly  based 
upon  his  mental  qualities.  Linnaeus  limiting  himself 
to  anatomical  and  phj^slologlcal  considerations  was 
content  with  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Quad- 
rumana,  under  the  title  of  Primates.  The  modern 
zoologists,  however,  who  continue  this  classification, 
and  give  to  man  the  same  ancestral  origin  with  that 
of  the  anthropoid  apes,  do  not  suppose  that  he  was 
descended  from  any  of  the  branches  of  that  family 
now  existing.  The  supposition  is  that  he  and  they 
are  descended  from  some  common  variety  which  has 
long  since  become  extinct,  and  that  perhaps  each  dif- 
fers as  much  from  the  common  stock  as  they  do  from 
one  another. 

The  varying  points  of  anatomical  resemblance  be- 
tween man  and  the  anthropoid  apes  are  worthy  of 
special  note.   "'  The  gorilla  approaches  nearest  to  man  in 


The  PIiysio/ojii;ir(il  Argument  381 

the  structure  of  the  hand  and  foot."  ^  But  his  arms 
are  nearly  twice  as  long  as  man's  and  the  lower  part 
of  his  face  is  developed  to  an  enormous  extent,  even 
when  compared  with  the  most  inferior  human  races; 
while  his  chest  and  neck  are  developed  in  adaptation 
to  the  stooping  gait  made  necessary  by  his  general 
structure.  The  chimpanzee  approaches  more  nearly 
to  man  in  the  shortness  of  his  arms  and  in  the  struc- 
tural details  of  the  skull.  But  still  his  arms  are  much 
longer  than  those  of  man,  and  his  breast  is  developed 
to  suit  his  stooping  posture,  and  the  lower  part  of  his 
face  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  upper  part.  The 
orangoutang  approaches  man  most  nearly  in  the 
structure  of  his  brain,  though  the  absolute  mass  of 
brain  is  larger  in  the  chimpanzee  than  in  the  orang- 
outang; but  in  the  orangoutang  the  convolutions  of 
the  brain  are  more  numerous,  and  the  frontal  lobe, 
which  is  the  more  direct  organ  of  intellectual  activity, 
is  more  prominent  in  him  than  in  any  other  variety 
of  the  anthropoid  apes.- 

Indeed,  one  of  the  most  striking  differences  between 
man  and  the  highest  of  the  apes  appears  in  the  size 
of  the  brain.  **  The  average  human  brain  weighs  48 
ounces,  while  that  of  a  large  gorilla  is  not  over  20 
ounces,"  ^  that  is,  the  weight  of  the  largest  brain  of  a 
gorilla    is    considerably    less    than    half    that    of    the 


u 


The   Physioloi^ical    Ar;^iimcnt  383 

averat2;c  man,  and  only  about  one-third  that  of  the 
best-developed  individuals  of  the  human  race.  Upon 
comparing  the  extremes  among  men,  however,  it  is 
found  that  the  difference  between  the  weight  of  the 
brain  in  the  highest  and  lowest  men  is  greater  than 
that  between  the  lowest  man  and  the  highest  ape. 
According  to  Huxley,  "  The  largest  recorded  human 
brain  weighed  between  65  and  66  ounces,"  *  while  the 
smallest  weighed  thirty-two  ounces,  that  is,  there  is 
an  absolute  difference  of  thirty-three  ounces,  or  of 
one-half,  in  the  weight  of  different  human  brains, 
while  there  is  only  a  difference  of  twelve  ounces  be- 
tween the  weight  of  the  smallest  human  brain  and 
that  of  the  largest  known  brain  of  an  ape;  or,  es- 
timating it  by  cubic  inches,  the  largest  human  brain 
yet  measured  contained  one  hundred  and  fourteen 
cubic  inches,  while  the  smallest  was  but  sixty-three 
cubic  inches,  showing  a  difference  of  fiftj^-one  cubic 
inches.-'  The  largest  brain  of  a  gorilla  yet  observed 
contained  thirty-four  and  one-half  cubic  inches,  or 
twenty-nine  cubic  inches  less  than  that  of  the  lowest 
man. 

Measured,  therefore,  either  by  the  weight  or  cu- 
bical contents,  there  is  both  absolutely  and  relatively 
a  greater  difference  in  size  of  brain  between  the  high- 
est man  and  the  lowest  man  than  there  is  between  the 


384  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

lowest  man  and  the  highest  ape.  Among  the  apes, 
also,  the  differences  are  as  great  among  themselves  as 
they  are  between  one  man  and  another,  or  between 
man  and  the  highest  apes.  The  cranial  capacity  of 
gorillas,  for  example,  varies  as  much  as  from  thirty- 
four  and  one-half  cubic  inches  in  the  highest  to 
twenty-four  cubic  inches  in  the  lowest. 

Following  the  most  recent  classification,  man  is  to 
be  placed  at  the  head  in  an  order  of  animals  contain- 
ing seven  families,  w^hich,  arranged  in  descending 
order  according  to  their  relative  rank,  would  be  as 
follows:  (i)  Man;  (2)  the  Catarrhine,  or  narrow- 
nosed  apes,  comprising  the  higher  species  found  in 
the  Old  World;  (3)  the  Platyrhine,  or  broad-nosed, 
apes,  comprising  all  but  one  of  the  New  World  spe- 
cies; (4)  the  Marmosets  of  the  New  World;  (5) 
the  Lemurs;  (6)  the  Cheiromys,  a  subspecies  of  the 
lemur,  containing  many  features  of  rodents;  and  (7) 
the  flying  lemur,  Galeopithecus,  a  species  resembling 
the  bat  in  some  respects.  The  gradations  connecting 
these  species  are  pronounced  by  Huxley  to  be  extra- 
ordinarj^  "  leading  us  insensibly  from  the  crown  and 
summit  of  the  animal  creation  down  to  creatures, 
from  which  there  is  but  a  step,  as  it  seems,  to  the 
lowest,  smallest,  and  least  intelligent  of  the  placental 
Mammalia."  ^ 


The   Fliysiolofr'ical   Ar^iunent  3^5 

But   c^reat   as   tlic    break   is   between   man    and   the 
anthropoid  apes,  there  is  a  still  more  significant  break 
between  the  anthropoid  apes  and  the  lemur.    Quoting 
Huxley    again,    "  So    far    as    cerebral    structure    goes, 
therefore,   it   is   clear  that   man   differs  less   from   the 
chimpanzee   or   orang,    than   these   do   even   from   the 
monkeys,   and   that   the   difference   between   the  brain 
of  the  chimpanzee  and  of  man  is  almost  insignificant 
when    compared    with    that    between    the    chimpanzee 
brain  and  that  of  a  Lemur,"  and  again,  "  It  is  a  re- 
markable   circumstance    that    though,    so    far    as    our 
present   knowledge  extends,   there  is  one   true  struct- 
ural  break   in   the  series  of   forms  of   Simian   brains, 
this  hiatus   does  not   He   between   man    and   the  man- 
like   apes,    but    between    the    lower    and    the    lowest 
Simians,    or   in    other   words,    between    the    Old    and 
New    World    apes    and    monkeys,    and    the    Lemurs. 
Every  Lemur  which   has  yet  been   examined,  in   fact, 
has  its  cerebellum  entirely  hidden,  posteriorly,  by  the 
Its  posterior  lobe,  with  the  contained  posterior  cornu 
and    hippocampus    minor,    more    or   less    rudimentar3\ 
Every     marmoset,     American     monkey,     Old    World 
monkey,   babboon,    or   manlike   ape,   on    the   contrary, 
has  its  cerebellum  entirely  hidden,  posteriorly,  by  the 
cerebral   lobes,   and   possesses   a   large   posterior  cornu 
with  a  well-developed  hippocampus  minor."  ^ 


386  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

In  view  of  all  these  facts,  it  is  difficult  to  resist 
the  conclusion  that,  so  far  as  his  physical  organism  is 
concerned,  man  is  genetically  connected  with  the 
highest  order  of  the  Mammalia,  but  it  is  equally  evi- 
dent that  he  is  not  descended  from  any  existing 
species  of  that  order,  and  this  Darwin  himself  was 
always  careful  to  say,  referring  to  the  ancestor  of 
man  as  an  "  ape-like  creature." 

But  after  his  separation  from  the  central  stock 
of  the  Primates,  man  must  have  made  most  sig- 
nificant and  phenomenal  advances  in  his  physical  or- 
ganization, adapting  it  to  the  wants  of  the  higher 
intelligence  with  which  he  became  endowed.  Briefly 
summarized,  the  advances  lay  in  the  following  par- 
ticulars :  ( I )  the  increased  size  and  complexity  of  the 
brain,  which  serves  as  the  seat  of  mental  and  nervous 
activity;  (2)  the  diminution  of  the  canine  teeth  and 
of  the  size  of  the  lower  part  of  the  face  in  general, 
bringing  the  animal  in  marked  subordination  to  the 
intellectual  features  of  the  countenance;  (3)  the  de- 
velopment of  the  lower  limbs  in  adaptation  to  the 
habitual  upright  position  in  which  he  moves;  (4)  a 
corresponding  adaptation  of  the  vertebral  column  to  the 
erect  posture;  (5)  the  development  of  the  thumb  and 
great  toe  in  man  in  adaptation  to  man's  upright  posi- 


77/<'   P/iysioIoo^ical  Jn^iinicnt  ^587 

tion  and  to  tlic  *zreat  \aricty  of  uses  to  which  the  hand 
is  put;  (h)  the  U)ss  of  that  hairy  covering  which  na- 
ture has  provided  for  all  of  man's  humhler  relatives. 
Wallace  thinks,  that  all  "  these  numerous  and  strik- 
ing differences  .  .  .  point  to  an  enormously  remote 
epoch  when  the  race  that  w^as  ultimately  to  develop 
into  man  diverged  from  that  other  stock  which  con- 
tinued the  animal  type  and  ultimately  produced  the 
existing  varieties  of  anthropoid  apes."  ^ 

But  up  -to  the  present  time  the  geological  strata 
have  yielded  no  forms  w^hich  bring  us  any  nearer  to 
our  probable  ancestry  than  do  these  degenerate  cous- 
ins of  the  anthropoid  family.  All  further  reasoning 
from  these  premises  concerning  the  date  of  the  actual 
beginning  of  the  human  race  must,  therefore,  be 
theoretical.  The  question,  How  did  this  ancient 
anthropoid  form  take  on  the  distinctively  human  pe- 
culiarities? will  be  closely  connected  with  the  other 
question.  How  long  ago  were  these  specific  qualities 
assumed?  In  the  next  chapter  it  will  come  in  our 
way  to  dwell  more  specifically  upon  the  mental  char- 
acteristics most  distinctive  of  the  human  race.  Our 
question  now  is.  How  did  man  obtain  those  physical 
peculiarities  which  separate  him  so  widely  from  the 
rest   of   the    animal    creation,    and    which    respond    in 


388  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

such  a  marvellous  manner  to  the  behest  of  his  mental 
endowments  ? 

Our  answer  to  this  question  is,  in  brief,  that  ob- 
viously this  iinishing  off  of  man's  physical  organiza- 
tion was  concurrent  with  the  impartation  to  him  of 
his  higher  mental  qualities.  How  this  impartation 
took  place  it  may  not  be  possible  for  us  to  compre- 
hend, but  that  it  did  take  place,  through  creative  in- 
terference or  creative  prearrangement,  at  a  definite 
epoch  of  history,  is  as  easily  comprehensible  as  that 
the  germ  in  which  we  each  as  individuals  originate 
is  quickened  into  true  spiritual  life,  and  becomes  en- 
dowed with  reason,  at  a  definite  point  in  its  exist- 
ence. When  the  embryo  really  becomes  human  and 
is  endow^ed  with  the  prerogatives  of  immortal  exist- 
ence is  as  much  a  mystery  to  the  Christian  philosopher 
as  the  question.  When  in  the  line  of  development  did 
the  natural  ancestry  of  the  human  race  become  en- 
dowed with  its  higher  human  prerogatives? 

When  studied  from  the  point  of  .view  of  adaptive 
economy,  the  human  form  is  the  noblest  physical 
work  of  God.  Considered  merely  in  his  physical  as- 
pect, "  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man.  ...  In  form 
and  moving,  how  express  and  admirable;  in  action, 
how  like  an  angel.  .  .  .  The  beauty  of  the  world,  the 
paragon  of  animals."     All  these  elements  constituting 


The   Physiolns^ical   Ar<^iinicnt  389 

Ills  peculiar  nobility  of  structure  would,  on  the  theory 
of  natural  selection,  be  rapidly  developed  upon  the  im- 
partation  to  man  of  his  higher  mental  qualities;  so 
that  the  strict  Darwinian,  even,  is  not  warranted  in 
assigning  an  indefinitely  long  period  to  the  earlier 
stages  of  the  development  of  man's  peculiar  physical 
qualities. 

PEHISTORIC     HUMAN     SKELETONS 

The  discoveries  of  prehistoric  human  skeletons 
which  are  most  important  for  comparison  are  those 
of  the  so-called  Neanderthal  skeletons  of  Europe,  and 
the  so-called  Pithecanthropus  erectus  of  Java.  The 
apelike  characteristics  of  the  Neanderthal  type  of 
skulls,  as  exhibited  in  that  from  Canstadt,  that  from 
the  valley  of  the  Neander,  and  that  from  the  cavern 
at  Spy  in  Belgium,  have  attracted  wide  attention  and 
have  led  to  voluminous  discussions.  At  first  it  was 
widely  supposed  that  the  missing  link  had  indeed 
been  found.  The  simian  afSnities  of  the  skulls  ap- 
peared in  the  enormous  thickness  of  the  bony  ridge 
over  the  eyes,  in  the  retreating  forehead,  in  the  gen- 
eral shallowness  of  the  brain  cavity,  and  in  various 
other  particulars  which  it  would  require  more  tech- 
nical language  to  describe  than  is  profitable  or  neces- 
sary in  a  popular  presentation  of  the  subject.  In  the 
case  of  the  skeletons  from  Spy,  we  are   fortunate  in 


390  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

having  the  lower  jaw,  as  well  as  most  of  the  other 
bones,  preserved.  In  addition  to  the  other  Nean- 
derthal characteristics  we  find  here  an  enormously 
heavy  lower  jaw,  almost  no  projecting  chin,  excep- 
tionally large  teeth  with  the  last  molar  as  large  as 
the  others,  in  all  which  respects  they  sensibly  ap- 
proach the  features  characteristic  of  the  highest  an- 
thropoid apes.  The  other  parts  of  the  skeletons  show 
that  they  were  powerfully  built  individuals  with 
strong,  curiously  curved  thigh  bones,  the  lower  ends 
of  which  are  so  fashioned  that  they  must  have  walked 
w^ith  a  bend  in  the  knee.    (See  p.  322.) 

But  in  the  discussions  aroused  by  the  discover}^  of 

these    prehistoric    skulls,    much    stress    was    properly 

laid    on    the    fact    that    skulls    of    the    same    type    are 

known  to  occur  at  the  present  day,  even  among   the 

civilized  races  of  Europe.    Indeed,  it  was  pointed  out 

that   some   men   of   note   have  possessed   skulls  closely 

resembling  that  from  the  Neanderthal.     St.   Mansui, 

Bishop   of  Toul   in   the   fourth   century,   possessed,   as 

it  would  appear  from  portraits,  a  forehead  still  more 

receding    and    a   vault   more   depressed   and   elongated 

than   those  of  the   Neanderthal   type;  while  the  skull 

I  of    the    Scotch    hero    Bruce    would    be    recognized    at 

,M' ■   1  once  as  belonging  to  that  type. 

/^    |1J      Furthermore,     recent     investigations     have     tended 


77/r   Pliysioloi^icdl  .Iri^umcnt  391 

constantly  to  Increase  the  jj;ap  separating  the  brain 
capacity  of  man  from  that  of  apes,  and  to  diminish, 
if  not  indeed  entirely  to  remove,  the  ^ap  which  was 
supposed  to  exist  between  Pleistocene  (Glacial)  and 
modern  man.'^  These  facts  have  been  mainly  pre- 
sented in  a  previous  chapter,  but  for  convenience  will 
here  be  summarized.  According  to  Sollas,  the  cra- 
nial capacity  of  the  Neanderthal  man,  as  well  as  of 
the  man  of  the  Chapelle  aux  Saints,  and  of  Spy,  all 
of  them  of  glacial  age,  amounted  to  a  little  more  than 
1,600  cubic  centimeters  (97.6  cu.  in.),  whereas  the 
average  capacity  of  P2uropean  skulls  is  not  above  1,550 
cubic  centimeters  (94.55  cu.  in.),  w^hile  the  average 
Australian  skull  has  a  capacity  of  only  1,250  cubic 
centimeters  (76.25  cu.  in.),  and  the  capacity  of  the 
brain  of  Leibnitz  is  only  1,422  cubic  centimeters 
(86.742  cu.  in.).  Thus  the  Australian,  so  far  as 
cranial  capacity  is  concerned,  stands  on  a  much  lower 
plane  than  that  of  glacial  man  in  Europe.  The  ca- 
pacity of  the  largest  brain  of  the  gorilla,  yet  observed, 
was  less  than  half  that  of  the  Neanderthal  skull. 

Still,  both  Professor  Huxley  and  Professor  Frai- 
pont  think  it  proper  to  suggest  that  the  skeleton  of 
the  man  of  Spy  gives  us  some  clue  to  the  rate  of  de- 
velopment leading  up  from  the  anthropoid  apes  to 
the  present  condition  of  the  human  species.     Accord- 


392  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ing  to  Professor  Fraipont,  "  If  the  most  ancient  ethnic 
type  known  has  been  capable  of  being  modified  dur- 
ing the  Quaternary  epoch  to  the  extent  of  giving  rise 
to  races  as  different  as  that  of  Cro-Magnon  and  those 
of  Furfooz,  if  during  this  epoch  it  has  been  capable 
of  losing  so  many  inferior  characteristics,  and  of 
gaining  so  many  others  terminating  in  the  brachy- 
cephalic  men  of  Grenelle,  it  is  not  too  difficult  to  be- 
lieve that  Pliocene  man  had  perhaps  more  inferior 
characteristics  than  the  man  of  Spy,  and  that  those 
of  the  Miocene  possessed  perhaps  more  pronounced 
simian  and  less  numerous  human  characteristics."  In 
the  same  strain.  Professor  Huxley  remarks,  that 
these  facts  '"  give  us  some,  however  dim,  insight  into 
the  rate  of  evolution  of  the  human  species,  and  indi- 
cate that  it  has  not  taken  place  at  a  much  faster  or 
slower  pace  than  that  of  other  mammalia.  And  if  that 
is  "SO,  we  are  warranted  in  the  supposition  that  the 
genus  Homo  .  .  .  was  represented  in  pliocene,  or  even 
in  miocene  tim.es.  But  I  do  not  know  by  wliat  osteo- 
logical  peculiarities  it  could  be  determined  whether 
the  pliocene,  or  miocene,  man  was  sufficiently  sapient 
to  speak  or  not ;  and  whether,  or  not,  he  answered  to 
the  definition  '  rational  animal  '  in  any  higher  sense 
than  a  dog  or  an  ape  does."  ^^ 


77/r   PJiysiolof^ical  /Ir'^uiiicnt  393 

Pithecanthropus  erect  us  ^^  is  the  name  ^iven  to  the 
species  supposed  to  be  lepresenteil  in  discoveries  made 
by  Dr.  Dubois  in  Central  Java  in  1894.  The  speci- 
mens consist  of  two  teeth  found  at  different  times  a 
few  yards  from  each  other,  the  top  part  of  a  skull 
found  about  a  yard  from  one  of  the  teeth,  and  a 
femur  found  about  fifteen  yards  distant.  These  were 
all  obtained  at  different  times,  in  volcanic  tufa  on  the 
bank  of  the  river  Bengawan,  near  Trinil.  Little  can 
be  inferred,  however,  concerning  the  age  of  the  re- 
mains from  the  hardness  of  the  rock  in  which  they 
occurred,  for  volcanic  outflows  of  various  sorts  have 
occurred  at  all  geological  ages,  even  down  to  the 
present.  But  the  deposits  w^ere  inferred  to  be  Ter- 
tiary from  the  associated  vertebrate  fauna,  which 
were  classified  as  late  Tertiary.  This,  however,  is 
subject  to  the  doubt  already  referred  to  in  speaking 
of  the  mammalian  remains  in  the  auriferous  gravels 
of  California,  as  to  whether  there  is  a  hard  and  fast 
line  to  be  drawn  between  Tertiary  and  Post-Tertiary 
fossils,  and  whether  the  same  species  became  extinct 
at  the  same  time  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  cranium  of  the  Pithecanthropus  erectus  is  in- 
deed remarkable  for  its  small  brain  capacity.  But 
even  so  it  is  separated  a  great  ways  from  that  of  the 
highest  apes,   and   is   not  inferior  to  that  of  some  ex- 


Pithecanthropus  erectus,  Dubois,  a,  The  skull  cap  seen  from 
above;  b,  in  profile;  c,  in  sagittal  section;  d,  e,  the  first 
found  molar  tooth,  seen  from  the  side  and  from  above; 
f,  g,  the  femur,  seen  from  in  front  and  in  profile,  (After 
Dubois,  X  1-6,  except  d,  e,  which  are  X  1-3.)  (From 
Sollas's  "Ancient  Hunters.")  (By  courtesy  of  Macmil- 
lan   and   Co.) 


77/(    Physiolofr'icdl  Anrumcnt 


.^95 


isting    races   of    men.      According   to    Cope,^-    it    had 
a  brain   capacity  of    i,ooo  cubic  centimeters    (6i    cu. 
in.),  as  against  1,500  cubic  centimeters  (91.5  cu.  in.) 
normal  liuman,  and  about  500  cubic  centimeters  (30.5 
cu.  in.)  for  the  gorilla.    But  Virchow  gives  950  cubic 
centimeters   (57-95  cu.  in.)   as  the  cranial  capacity  of 
some  Negritos  and  only  860  cubic  centimeters  (48.46 
cu.  in.)  for  an  inhabitant  of  New  Britain.    The  tooth 
might   do    for   a    gorilla    but    the    femur   is    long   and 
straight,    entirely    human.     From    the    shape    of    the 
femur  it  is  evident  that  the  individual  to  which  It  be- 
longed   walked    erect,    which    implies    the    remarkable 
adjustment  of  the  cervical  vertebn-e  between  the  spinal 
column    and   the    head,   which,   more   than    any   other 
anatomical    peculiarity,    differentiates    man    from    the 
apes.      Hence   comparative   anatomists   like   Cope   and 
Lyddeker  have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  the  speci- 
mens entirely  human.     They  are  those  of  a  man  and 
not  of  a  connecting  link.^  = 

EVIDENCE    OF    UNITY   AND   EQUALITY 

The  unity  and  the  substantial  anatomical  equality 
of  the  different  races  of  mankind  become  more  evi- 
dent upon  careful  scientific  investigation.  What  were 
supposed  to  be  anatomical  pecuh'arlties  of  lower  and 
prehistoric  races  are  found,  upon  wider  comparison, 
not  to  be  peculiarities.     The  variation  in  the  form  of 


39^  Origin  rind  Antiquity  of  Alan 

the  temporal  bone  of  the  skull  by  which  it  comes  in 
contact  with  the  frontal  bone,  which  was  supposed 
to  be  characteristic  of  lower  races,  is  found  to  ex- 
ist among  all  races,  though  with  unequal  frequency. 
The  lateral  flatness  of  the  tibia  "  observed  in  skeletons 
of  the  oldest  remains  of  man  in  Europe,  and  also  in 
the  skeletons  of  various  races,"  and  various  other  ab- 
normal forms,  "  are  found  among  all  races,  but  the 
degree  of  variability  is  not  everywhere  the  same."  ^* 
But  in  every  anatomical  arrangement  showing  the 
gap  between  man  and  animal,  and  the  variations  be- 
tween races,  man  is  w^idely  separated  from  animals  and 
but  slightly  separated  from  his  fellows.  According 
to  Boas,  ''  The  European  and  the  Mongol  have  the 
largest  brains;  the  European  has  a  small  face  and  a 
high  nose ;  —  all  features  farther  removed  from  the 
probable  animal  ancestor  of  man  than  the  correspond- 
ing features  of  other  races.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
European  shares  lower  characteristics  with  the  Aus- 
tralian, both  retaining  in  the  strongest  degree  the 
hairiness  of  the  animal  ancestor,  while  the  specifically 
human  development  of  the  red  lip  is  developed  most 
markedly  in  the  negro.  The  proportions  of  the  limbs 
of  the  negro  are  also  more  markedly  distinct  from  the 
corresponding  proportions  in  the  higher  apes  than  are 
those   of   the   European."  ^''     According    to   Manouv- 


The  Physiological  Argiunent  397 

rier,  as  summarized  by  Boas,  '*  all  the  investigations 
that  have  been  made  up  to  the  present  time  compel 
us  to  assume  that  the  characteristics  of  the  osseous, 
muscular,  visceral,  or  circulator}-  system,  have  prac- 
tically no  direct  relation  to  the  mental  ability  of 
man."  ^^ 

Estimates  of  the  size  of  the  brain,  it  Is  true,  show 
a  slight  superiority  for  the  white  race.  "According  to 
Topinard,"  as  given  by  Boas,  "  the  capacity  of  the 
skull  of  males  of  the  neolithic  period  In  Europe  is 
about  1560  cc.  (44  cases)  ;  that  of  modern  Europeans 
is  the  same  (347  cases)  ;  of  the  Mongoloid  race,  15 10 
cc.  (68  cases)  ;  of  African  negroes,  1405  cc.  (83 
cases)  and  of  the  negroes  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  1460 
cc.    (46   cases)."  ^'^ 

In  analyzing  these  statistics  it  Is  Instructive  to  no- 
tice that  the  brain  of  neolithic  man  was  no  larger  than 
that  of  palaeolithic  and  was  equal  to  that  of  the  mod- 
ern European,  and  that  the  brain  of  the  so-called 
lowest  race  averages  larger  than  that  of  the  lower 
members  of  tlie  white  race.  Furthermore,  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  brain  of  women  is  found  to  be 
lighter  than  of  men  of  the  same  stature,  while,  as 
already  stated,  a  few  eminent  men  are  known  to  have 
possessed  unusually  small  brains.  Hence  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  but  that   a  well-developed  small   brain 


398  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

can  equal  a  larger  one  in  the  amount  of  high-class 
work  that  it  does.  Darwin,  in  commenting  upon  the 
mental  activities  of  the  ant,  significantly  remarks  that 
when  we  consider  the  size  of  its  brain  and  the  va- 
riety of  its  activities  it  would  seem  that  its  brain  is 
the  most  highly  organized  segm.ent  of  matter  of  which 
we  have  any  knowledge.^^ 

On  surveying  the  whole  subject,  it  appears  to  be 
evident  that  little  confidence  can  be  placed  in  any 
chronological  calculations  based  upon  the  rate  of  the 
physiological  changes  by  which  man  has  become  sep- 
arated into  races,  and  by  which  he  may  have  advanced 
from  the  strictly  anthropoid  to  the  truly  human  stage. 
The  element  of  uncertainty  in  this  class  of  calcula- 
tions lies  chiefly  in  our  ignorance  of  the  extent  to 
which  the  possession  of  man's  mental  faculties  may  be 
a  disturbing  factor  in  the  ordinary  course  of  evolu- 
tion, but  partly,  also,  in  our  ignorance  of  the  relation 
of  changing  physical  environment  to  the  rapidity  of 
modification  of  physiological  characteristics. 

Even  Mr.  Darwin  did  not  seem  to  be  fully  aware 
of  the  wide  range  of  individual  variation  constantly 
going  on  in  nature;  so  that  he  was  constantly  assum- 
ing and  asserting  an  excessively  slow  rate  of  change 
in  species.      Mr.   Wallace  ^^  has   some  just  criticisms 


Tlw  Physio/ogicrd  Argument  399 

upon  Darwin's  statement  of  this  point.  But  facts  are 
continually  coming  to  light  which  show  that  the 
amount  of  variability  in  all  widely  dispersed  species  is 
so  great  that  adaptations  to  new  conditions  may  take 
place  very  rapidly,  and  this  partly  accounts  for  the 
fact  that  genera,  both  of  plants  and  animals,  have 
been  so  successful  in  surviving  the  great  geological 
changes.  For  the  most  interesting  and  exhaustive  col- 
lection of  facts  upon  the  extent  of  variability  in  wild 
species  of  anim.als,  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  J.  A. 
Allen,  whose  patient  work  -^  in  examining  the  actual 
extent  of  variation  among  the  mammals  and  w^inter 
birds  of  East  Florida  really  marks  an  epoch  in  the  Dar- 
winian theor}^  of  evolution.  From  the  facts  collected 
by  him  it  appears  that  the  variations  constantly  going 
on  in  the  wild  birds  of  Florida  affect  every  part  of 
the  frame,  m.odifying  the  length  of  the  body,  of  the 
wing,  of  the  tail,  of  each  toe,  and  of  the  bill.  In 
amount  the  variations  reach  from  twelve  to  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  that  is,  in  a  thousand  birds  of  a  single 
species,  in  addition  to  those  of  average  size,  there  will 
be  a  considerable  number  that  were  more  than  ten 
per  cent  above  the  average  size  in  these  several  parts, 
and  an  equal  number  that  were  ten  per  cent  smaller 
in  these  parts.  It  requires  but  a  moment's  reflection 
to  perceive  what  a   rapid  engine  of  progress  such   an 


400  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

amount  of  variability  furnishes.  The  variations  are 
always  present,  standing  ready  to  be  caught  up  and 
carried  farther  on  In  the  same  line  by  any  propitious 
series  of  circumstances.  If,  for  example,  there  should 
come  about  a  change  of  climate,  such  as  to  render  It 
more  difficult  for  birds  to  obtain  their  food,  and  that 
difficulty  was  such  as  to  be  overcome  by  the  possession 
of  a  bill  a  quarter  of  an  Inch  longer  than  the  average, 
or  of  a  wing  ten  per  cent  more  powerful  than  the 
average,  the  individuals  to  survive  would  be  those  that 
possessed  these  bills,  and  that  could  make  use  of  those 
more  powerful  wings.  If  we  may  suppose  that  there 
were  a  million  birds  to  be  subjected  to  this  sifting 
process,  all  might  perish  but  the  favored  ten  thousand, 
and  the  preparation  of  species  would  henceforth  go  on 
from  this  selected  remnant,  that  is,  we  would  have  in 
nature  an  even  more  powerful  selective  agent  than  we 
have  in  man  while  endeavoring  to  improve  domestic 
varieties. 

It  has  been  a  current  objection  to  Darwinism,  — 
that  the  minute  variations  he  assumed  would  be  of 
no  advantage  to  an  individual  in  time  of  trial.  Of 
what  advantage,  for  example,  would  it  be  to  a  wood- 
pecker in  time  of  scarcity  of  grubs  to  have  a  bill  a 
thousandth  of  an  inch  longer  than  its  fellow?  The 
question    Is    certainly    pertinent,    and    the    objection 


Till'    P/iyS!o/o<ri(yil    A  IfriUHC  fit  4()I 

involved  in  it  is  valid.  The  variations,  in  order  to 
furnish  any  opportunity  for  the  action  of  natural  se- 
lection, must  be  appreciable.  And  such  we  find  them 
actually  to  be,  —  far  more  appreciable  and  marked 
than  Darwin  in  his  caution  ever  fully  perceived. 

From  these  facts  concerning  the  extent  of  varia- 
bility constantly  affecting  all  portions  of  the  organ- 
ism, we  can  see  at  a  glance  that  upon  subjecting  a 
species  to  new  conditions,  a  variety  with  a  uniform 
variation  of  ten  per  cent  from  the  former  average 
development  of  any  part  might  be  established  in  a 
few^  generations;  and  so  long  as  the  conditions  remain 
permanent,  the  variety  would  remain  permanent,  and 
so  become  established  as  an  actual  matter  of  fact„ 
Upon  a  subsequent  change  of  conditions,  these  pecul- 
iarities might  be  still  farther  exaggerated.  From  our 
brief  and  imperfect  experiments  with  domestic  ani- 
mals, we  cannot  tell  how^  rapidly  such  changes  might 
take  place.  But  it  is  altogether  more  probable  that 
the  changes  have  taken  place  through  what  might  be 
called  a  paroxysm  of  nature,  than  through  an  inch- 
by-mch  process.  The  changing  conditions  of  nature 
may  be  compared  to  a  ratchet  wheel,  by  which  varia- 
tions of  a  definite  amount  only  are  seized  hold  of  and 
preserved,  and  that  after  a  definite  amount  of  change 
in  the  conditions. 


402  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

As  already  remarked,  the  crowning  physiological 
feature  in  man  in  which  his  superiority  over  the  lower 
animals  appears,  is  in  the  size  and  quality  of  his  brain, 
—  the  average  human  brain  -^  weighing  three  times 
as  much  as  the  average  brain  of  the  gorilla.  By  what 
process  of  natural  selection  can  we  conceive  this  great 
difference  to  have  come  about?  To  form  any  con- 
ception of  it  by  the  processes  of  natural  selection,  we 
are  compelled  to  go  back,  and  imagine  some  branch 
from  the  anthropoid  family  of  early  Tertiary  times 
to  have  been  led  along  by  some  kind  of  intelligent 
selection  in  the  line  of  man's  physical  characteristics; 
while  the  full  assumption  of  the  human  form  may 
at  last  have  come  about  with  great  rapidity.  For  the 
skull  and  brain  cavity  seem  to  be  as  variable  in  ani- 
mals as  any  other  portion  of  the  system.  Mr.  Wal- 
lace affirms,  for  example,  that  the  orangoutangs' 
skulls  which  he  collected  in  Borneo  "  differed  remark- 
ably in  size  and  proportions.  The  orbits  varied  in 
width  and  height,  the  cranial  ridge  was  either  single 
or  double,  either  much  or  little  developed,  and  the 
zygomatic  aperture  varied  considerably  In  size.  .  .  . 
As  an  instance  of  the  amount  of  variation  in  the  skulls 
of  fully  developed  male  orangs,  I  found  the  wndth 
between  the  orbits  externally  to  be  only  4  Inches  In 
one  specimen  and  fully  5  Inches  In  another."  ^^    The 


The  Physiological   Argument  403 

skulls  of  various  other  mammalia  are  found  to  be 
equally  variable.  Dr.  Gray  of  the  Britism  Museum 
found  in  the  skulls  of  ten  bears  examined  by  him 
variations  to  the  extent  of  from  one-eighth  to  one- 
f^fth. 

From  this  general  survey  of  facts  concerning  varia- 
bility, it  is  easy  for  us  to  see  that,  without  disturbing 
the  theory  of  the  continuity  of  development,  the  fin- 
ishing touch  to  man's  physical  organization  securing 
that  multitude  of  minute  peculiarities  which  alto- 
gether separate  him,  by  an  immeasurable  distance, 
even  in  a  physical  point  of  view,  from  his  simian 
ancestry,  may  have  been  brought  about  in  a  compara- 
tively short  period  of  time;  while  those  more  mod- 
erate changes  which  have  resulted  in  the  peculiarities 
of  race  would  demand  even  a  shorter  period.  When 
that  point  was  reached  in  which  the  reasoning  powers 
of  man  became  predominant  and  took  the  helm,  the 
variations  in  tlie  direction  of  the  perfect  human  sys- 
tem would  be  seized  upon  and  preserved  with  such 
constancy  as  to  transform  the  physical  appearance  of 
the  race  with  extreme  rapidity. 

Beyond  question  the  physical  organization  of  man 
is  maintained  at  its  present  high  level  of  perfection  by 
its  remarkable  adaptedness  to  carry  out  the  behests  of 
his  intellect.     The  human  body  is  an  admirable  com^ 


404 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


plement  to  the  human  mind.  The  size  of  the  brain 
and  the  complexity  of  its  convolutions  are  adjusted  to 
the  intellectual  faculties  of  which  it  is  the  organ.  The 
free  and  shorter  arms  with  the  delicately  adjusted 
thumb  and  fingers  upon  the  extremity,  together  with 
the  well-developed  lower  limbs  and  the  broad-soled 
foot,  give  to  man  the  best  conceivable  form  for  the 
expression  and  accomplishment  of  his  intellectual  and 
rational  purposes. 

The  same  adaptive  forces  of  natural  selection  which 
keep  the  human  form  within  its  typical  limits,  and  may 
have  operated  with  great  rapidity  toward  the  original 
perfection  of  that  form,  are  still  operative  in  the  pro- 
duction of  changes.  Even  now  it  is  thought  that  high 
civilization  is  sensibly  modifying  many  of  the  fea- 
tures of  the  race  by  preserving  slight  changes  which 
favor  economy  of  force.  The  diminution  of  the  lower 
jaw,  so  characteristic  of  higher  races,  as  compared 
with  the  upper,  is  not  improbably  thought  by  some 
to  arise  from  the  correlation  between  an  increase  of 
brain  and  a  diminution  of  more  functionless  parts. 
Strength  of  jaw  does  not  play  the  same  role  in  assist- 
ing digestion  among  civilized  that  it  does  among  sav- 
age nations.  So,  too,  the  loss  of  the  hairy  covering 
upon  the  body  may  be  advantageous,  by  leaving  more 
of  the  energy  to  be  bestowed  upon  the  organ  of  mental 


The   Physiological  Argument  405 

operations.  There  is  an  economy  of  force  in  wearing 
tlic  hair  of  another  aniniai  over  that  of  producing  it 
for  one's  self.  I'he  full  development  of  the  mental 
faculties  seems  in  many  ways  to  be  correlated  with 
the  diminution  or  disuse,  and  perhaps  loss  even,  of 
some  lower  functions  of  the  body.  Intellectual  power 
is  gained  in  Germany  by  impairing  the  eyesight  of 
school  children,  where  now  almost  all  have  to  use 
spectacles.  And  so,  in  general,  the  acuteness  of  the 
senses  is  dulled  by  our  dependence  upon  invented  pro- 
cesses and  mechanisms. 

When  w^e  come  down  to  the  final  question  of  the 
mode  of  the  origin  of  the  human  race,  \\t  meet  in 
its  fullest  form  the  familiar  problem  concerning  de- 
sign in  nature,  and  it  has  been  convincingly  argued 
by  Wallace  and  others,  that  man's  physical  structure 
bears  indubitable  marks  both  of  long-continued  fore- 
sight in  general  preparation  for  its  development  and 
of  intelligent  selection  in  its  final  Adaptation  to  the 
incoming  mental  powers  of  which  it  was  to  be  the 
organ.  It  may  be  impossible  for  us  to  explain  just 
how  the  designing  Artificer  of  all  things  has  woven 
his  pattern.  But  that  it  has  been  woven  by  him  is 
beyond  all  reasonable  doubt. 


406  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

CHAPTER    XIII 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EVIDENCE 

In  a  strange  fit  of  despondency  Sir  William  Ham- 
ilton fell  into  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  modern 
science  was  in  danger  of  robbing  life  of  its  highest 
incentives  and  its  noblest  joys  by  clearing  up  all  the 
mysteries  of  the  universe,  and  banishing  w-onder  and 
reverence  from  the  mind  of  man.  Nothing,  however, 
could  be  farther  from  the  truth  than  this.  The  por- 
tion of  nature's  realm  which  can  be  illuminated  by 
the  torch  of  science  is  but  infinitesimal  in  comparison 
with  the  whole  domain.  Newton  brought  more  mys- 
teries into  the  horizon  than  had  ever  been  dreamed  of 
before.  Darwin  has  raised  ten  thousand  questions 
where  he  has  answered  one.  Ever}^  secondar}^  cause 
brought  to  light  by  scientific  research  reveals  a  vast 
array  of  other  causes  necessary  to  account  for  the 
one  already  partially  comprehended.  The  man  of 
science  can  never  push  his  processes  of  thought  far 
enough  back  to  explain  the  real  origin  of  anything. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  diminishing  wonder,  and  of 
undermining   the    foundations   of   reverence,   his   work 


The  Psycholoi^ical  Evidence  407 

legitimately  increases  wonder  and   ma<;nilies  the  mys- 
tery of  the  creation. 

The  doctrine  of  evolution  as  it  appears  in  modern 
science  is  not  a  doctrine  pertaining  to  ultimate  things, 
hut  to  the  secondary  processes  of  nature,  and  does 
not  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  legitimate  argu- 
ments of  theism.  The  processes  of  evolution  demand 
a  creator  of  infinite  power  and  wisdom  to  set  them 
in  motion.  Speaking  in  general  terms,  there  are 
three  prevalent  modes  of  attempting  to  conceive  of 
the  Creator's  relation  to  the  universe;  namely,  the 
mechanical,  the  immanent,   and  the  supervisory. 

The  mechanical  theory  represents  the  Creator  as 
impressing  upon  the  original  molecules  of  matter 
comprising  the  universe  such  capacities  and  movements 
that  there  should  eventually  come  out  of  them  all  the 
combinations  revealed  by  the  science  of  chemistry, 
and  of  astronomy;  w^hile  some  would  maintain  that 
even  life  itself  was  involved  in  the  combinations,  so 
that  it  should  come  into  being  by  spontaneous  gener- 
ation. Nor  would  it  stop  with  the  production  by 
natural  forces  of  the  phenomena  of  life.  Even  the 
higher  qualities  of  the  human  mind  are  brought  into 
the  grasp  of  the  theory,  and  thought  is  looked  upon 
as  a  secretion  of  the  brain,  as  bile  is  of  the  liver. 

Various  names  imperfectly  describe  this  theorv.    In 


4o8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

a  former  century  it  would  have  been  called  deism,^ 
which  so  magnified  the  exertion  of  creative  power  in 
the  beginning  as  to  shut  off  all  necessity  for  its  pres- 
ence and  interference  at  any  subsequent  stage  of 
progress.  This  is  not  atheism.  At  any  rate,  it  is  not 
so  in  fact,  whatever  it  may  be  in  name,  for  if  it  re- 
jects the  name  of  the  Deity,  it  cannot  help  transfer- 
ring to  the  original  elements  of  the  universe  all  the 
potencies  ordinarily  attributed  to  the  Creator. 

At  the  other  extreme  lies  the  doctrine  of  the  divine 
immanency,  which  aims  to  save  both  nature  and  man 
from  the  inexorable  rule  of  fate  and  mechanical  forces 
by  robbing  them  of  all  real  independent  existence. 
This  view  of  the  universe  would  represent  it  as  the 
constant  product  of  an  ever-acting  deity.  It  distin- 
guishes itself  from  pantheism  by  insisting  upon  the 
freedom  of  the  divine  activity.  What  are  ordinarily 
called  laws  of  nature  are  under  this  theory  regarded 
merely  as  the  lines  of  permanent  activity  w^hich  the 
wisdom  of  the  Creator  has  imposed  upon  himself. 
These  lines  of  activity  are  more  or  less  permanent  or 
subject  to  variation,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of 
the  adjustment  between  the  constitutional  and  statute 
laws  of  a  nation.  Those  natural  forces  which  exhibit 
themselves  in  such  phenomena  as  those  of  chemistry 
and  astronomy  are  the  permanent  lines  of  the  Crea- 


The  Psyrho/ni^icnl  Evidence  409 

tor's  activity  corrcspoiulino;  to  the  principles  of  con- 
stitutional law;  while  in  the  more  variahle  phenomena 
of  animal  and  plant  life  and  the  still  more  complex 
phenomena  of  human  histor>',  we  have  what  corre- 
sponds to  statute  law,  which  the  legislature  is  free  to 
change  from  day  to  day.  It  is  enough  to  say  of  this 
theory,  that  it  meets  its  most  formidable  difficulty  in 
the  prerogative  of  independent  choice  which  belongs 
to  the  human  will,  and  which  in  the  most  emphatic 
manner  declares  that  man  in  the  realm  of  his  moral 
activity  is  not  an  automaton,  but  a  free  and  indepen- 
dent power,  having  in  his  own  consciousness  the  high- 
est possible  evidence  that  in  the  realm  of  moral  choice 
he  is  the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes. 

In  its  ultimate  analysis,  however,  the  doctrine  of 
the  divine  immanency  as  held  by  the  majority  of  its 
advocates  does  not  differ  essentially  from  the  theory 
which  supposes  the  Deity  to  be  both  the  creator  and 
the  supervisor  of  the  universe.  According  to  both 
theories,  the  ordinar}^  progress  of  events  was  directly 
provided  for  in  the  creation,  or  what  we  may  call  the 
constitution  of  nature,  while,  on  either  theory,  it  is 
not  believed  that  all  contingencies  are  thus  provided 
for.  This  view  of  the  universe  does  not  rest  upon 
mere  n  priori  principles,  but  is  one  which  is  forced 
upon  us  by  the  study  of  nature  itself,   and  especially 


4IO  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

by  the  questions  that  arise  in  attempting  to  account 
for  the  origin  of  the  human  race.  Nor  does  this  the- 
ory interfere  with  the  continuity  of  nature:  it  does 
not  necessarily  suppose  a  break  in  the  course  of  nature 
at  any  point.  The  web  of  nature  is  continuous,  but 
additional  threads  are  inserted  from  time  to  time  to 
increase  the  complexity  and  add  to  the  beauty  of  the 
figure. 

However  much  we  may  emphasize  the  continuity 
of  nature,  it  is  difficult  not  to  admit  that  there  have 
been  at  least  three  stages  of  development  in  which 
something  new  has  been  added  to,  or,  as  we  might 
say,  grafted  upon,  the  course  of  nature.  Granting 
that  the  nebular  hypothesis,  or  something  like  it,  is 
proven,  and  that  the  worlds  are  but  nuclei  condensed 
by  gravitation  from  more  widely  disseminated  spheres 
of  matter,  the  conditions  were  at  first  utterly  incom- 
patible with  the  existence  of  living  organisms.  But 
in  due  process  of  time  vegetable  life  sprang  into  ex- 
istence upon  the  world.  Some  have  endeavored  to 
maintain  that  the  first  forms  of  life  were  the  direct 
products  of  chemical  action.  But  all  efforts  to  pro- 
duce life  independent  of  preexistent  life  germs  have 
heretofore  failed.  Spontaneous  generation  is  a  figment 
of  the  imagination  originating  neither  in  experiment 
nor  observation,  but  in   a  preconceived   and  proofless 


The  Psyc/ioloiriral  Evidence  411 

theory  conccrnin^j;  what  f/iit^lit  liavc  happened  in  a 
condition  of  things  which  is  beyond  the  reach  of  ex- 
pcrinient  or  observation.  This  Air.  Huxley  frankly 
admitted.  Abandoning,  however,  for  a  moment,  the 
light  of  science,  he  had  faith  that  somehow  in  the 
chemical  interactions  of  a  cooling  universe  there  was 
developed  that  unique  power  which  meets  us  in  a 
living  organism.-  But  to  most  well-balanced  minds 
it  must  still  seem  to  be  more  in  accordance  with  the 
facts  to  regard  the  active  principle  w^hich  produced  the 
phenomena  of  vitality  as  a  positive  addition  to  the 
forces  of  the  world,  if  not  of  the  universe. 

In  distinction  from  all  known  chemical  agencies, 
the  living  principle  has  the  power  of  growth  and 
reproduction.  It  adapts  itself  to  conditions,  and  ap- 
propriates to  its  uses  the  materials  and  forces  sur- 
rounding it,  but  it  also  overcomes  their  agency,  and 
acts  in  opposition  to  them,  and  finally  through  a 
microscopical  germ  transmits  to  its  successor  all  its 
own  powers.  In  the  language  of  Genesis,  it  "  has 
seed  in  itself."  Such  is  its  ability  to  conquer  nature, 
that  from  a  single  germ  planted  in  favoring  conditions 
in  the  mo<;t  obscure  part  of  the  earth,  it  is  only  a 
question  of  time  when  its  progeny  will  have  spread 
over  the  whole  surface  of  the  globe;  yes,  more,  when, 
according  to  the  theory  of  evolution.  It  will  have  di- 


412  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

versified  itself  so  as,  in  the  course  of  ages,  to  appear 
in  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  botanical  species  into 
which  the  men  of  science  have  classified  the  vegetable 
world. 

It  is  impossible  rationally  to  believe  that  such  a 
principle  of  life  is  the  product  of  chemical  forces. 
It  is  rather  a  coordinate  force  which  furnishes  the 
physiological  foundation  for  any  well-considered  doc- 
trine of  the  derivative  origin  of  species.  Chemical 
and  ph^^slcal  forces  are  but  the  machinery  of  a  mill. 
Machinery  cannot  make  cloth  of  itself:  there  must  be 
put  into  it  the  cotton  or  the  wool  or  the  silk,  for  the 
machinery  to  work  upon.  The  product  is  the  joint 
result  of  the  work  of  the  one  and  the  qualities  of  the 
other.  If  any  one  wishes  to  believe  that  the  marvel- 
lous adaptive  capacities  of  plant  life  sprang  from  the 
dead  forces  of  nature,  he  is  at  liberty  to  do  so,  but  at 
the  risk  of  his  reputation  for  sanity.  In  the  absence 
of  all  scientific  evidence  he  is  not  at  liberty  to  impose 
it  on  any  one  else  for  belief. 

If  we  admit  that  these  primordial  germs  of  vege- 
table life  had  within  them  the  power  and  potency  of 
developing  into  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  species 
which  now  cover  the  dry  land  from  pole  to  pole,  and 
even  invade  the  sea  and  support  themselves  on  its 
bosom,  we  must  still  find  It  hard  to  believe  that  plant 


77/c  Psyrho/oi^irdl   Kvidence  413 

life  has  had  within  itself  from  the  beginning  the  power 
of  ultimately  taking  upon  itself  the  forms  and  pre- 
rogatives of  animal  life;  and  this,  even  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  it  is  impossible  to  determine 
whether  some  of  the  lowest  forms  of  life  belong  to 
the  animal  or  to  the  vegetable  kingdom.  For,  so 
nearly  alike  are  some  of  these  forms  that  Mr.  Fran- 
cis Darwin  has  humorously  suggested  that  the  only 
practicable  way  of  determining  to  which  kingdom  they 
belong  would  be  to  ascertain  what  class  of  ani- 
mals would  eat  them,  —  whether  Herbivora  or  Car- 
nivora.  It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  this 
difficulty  of  distinguishing  plants  and  animals  exists 
only  in  the  very  lowest  forms  of  life.  As  a  rule, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  distinguishing  an  animal  from 
a  plant.  Animals  give  evidence  of  having  sensation 
and  intelligence,  and,  so  far,  approach  the  dignity  of 
companionship  with  man.  They  give  evidence  of 
having  pleasure  and  pain ;  so  that  we  recoginze  them 
as  having  rights  which  we  are  bound  to  protect,  and 
organize  societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to 
them  —  a  thing  we  should  never  think  of  doing  for 
plants. 

If  any  wish  to  believe  that  the  germs  of  plant  life 
have  by  their  own  power  assumed  these  higher  char- 
acteristics of  sensation  and   intelligence,   thev  are   free 


414  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  do  so,  but  ft  is  well  for  them  to  be  reminded  that 
in  making  this  supposition  they  are  acting  on  evidence 
of  no  scientific  value,  and  are  ascribing  to  infinitesimal 
germs  an  amount  of  flexibility  and  latent  power 
which  seems  to  most  people  not  only  incredible,  but 
absurd.  Especially  Is  this  so  if  one  step  farther  is 
taken,  and  this  vegetable  germ  which  has  been  sup- 
posed to  contain  in  It  the  powers  and  potencies  of  ani- 
mal life,  is  Itself  also  to  be  resolved  into  some  special 
combination  of  molecular  motion.  To  imagine  that 
animal  life  has  developed  from  vegetable  life,  and  that 
vegetable  life  is  a  spontaneous  development  from  the 
fire  mist,  and  that  from  nothing  or  next  to  nothing. 
Is  the  same  as  resting  the  argument  upon  nothing,  or 
next  to  nothing.  To  say  that  the  Creator  has  power 
originally  to  impress  upon  matter  the  ability  at  a  proper 
time  to  transform  itself  Into  vegetable  germs,  and  at 
another  time  to  rise  to  the  higher  level  of  animal 
feeling  and  Intelligence,  is  to  utter  statements  which 
are  incapable  of  proof,  and  are  harder  to  believe  than 
the  statement  that  the  Creator  has  from  time  to  time 
added  new  forces  to  the  unfolding  material  system. 

But  It  Is  not  necessary  to  perplex  ourselves  unduly 
with  the  metaphysical  questions  concerning  the  man- 
ner In  which  these  new  things  have  been  Incorporated 
into   the   sj^stem.      Even    if,   with    Locke,    we   should 


The  Psychological  Evidence  415 

grant  the  possibility  that  it  is  as  easy  for  the  Creator 
to  endow  matter  with  the  power  of  thought  as  it  is 
to  create  an  independent  substance  capable  of  thought 
and  join  it  to  matter,  we  cannot  avoid  the  fact  that  these 
manifestations  of  the  higher  powers  of  life  and  thought 
come  in  at  successive  stages  of  the  material  development, 
and  are  connected  with  peculiar  effects  upon  the  parti- 
cles of  matter  with  which  they  are  associated.  Vegetable 
life  controls  matter,  and  builds  up  a  form  for  itself. 
In  animals  some  low  forms  of  apparently  conscious 
thought  make  use  of  matter.  To  be  sure,  in  one 
sense  it  is  mechanical  force  which  makes  the  dog's 
tail  \Aag,  but  it  is  something  different  from  mechan- 
ical force  which  makes  the  dog  wag  his  tail.  It  is 
perhaps  the  memories  of  a  long-lost  voice,  which  is 
in  no  sense  a  physical  force,  that  sets  the  train  of 
associations  fn  motion  and  rouses  the  joyous  feeling 
of  which  the  movement  of  the  muscles  is  the  sign  and 
effect.  If  these  germs  of  animal  and  plant  life  were 
in  the  original  elements  of  the  universe,  the  mystery 
of  their  lying  dormant  for  such  endless  ages,  and  then 
awaking  into  life,  surpasses  comprehension.  Mention 
has  already  been  made  of  the  gauntlet  which  the 
forms  of  life  are  compelled  to  run  after  once  they  have 
been  ushered  into  the  world  amid  the  warring  ma- 
terial   forces  of   nature.      It   is   not  many   millions  of 


4l6  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

years  since  there  was  such  a  condition  of  things  in  the 
world  that  life  could  not  exist  at  all;  at  least  in  con- 
nection with  any  of  the  material  forms  in  which  it  is 
now  organized.  Ten  millions  of  years  ago,  say  some 
of  the  astronomers,  the  sun  was  so  hot  that  all  the 
oceans  were  dried  up,  and  water  —  that  indispensable 
accompaniment  of  organic  life  —  was  nowhere  to  be 
found  in  the  world.  Ten  millions  of  years  in  the 
future,  and  the  heat  of  the  sun  will  so  diminish  that 
all  the  waters  of  the  ocean  will  be  frozen  solid,  and 
again  there  will  be  no  water  upon  the  earth  to  help 
the  growth  of  the  organized  products  of  life.  Be- 
tween these  two  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  the  or- 
ganized products  of  life  are  maintaining  a  precarious 
existence. 

ORIGIN    OF    MAN^S    MENTAL    FACULTIES 

That  man  incorporates  into  his  earthly  nature  all 
the  essential  elements  present  in  the  lower  orders  of 
being  is  evident  to  all.  His  body  is  built  up  of  var- 
ious chemical  compounds.  Dust  he  is,  and,  upon  the 
sundering  of  soul  and  body,  unto  dust  he  w^'U  return. 
In  his  bodily  organization,  also,  he  is  patterned  after 
other  members  of  the  animal  creation.  So  great  is 
this  likeness,  that  we  are  not  compelled  in  reason  to 
suppose  that  in  the  creation  of  man  there  has  been  an 


Tlic  Psyiholoi^iral  Kvidcme  41 7 

observable  break  in  the  order  of  nature.  We  may 
well  believe  that  the  law  of  parsimony  has  here,  as 
ever}'where  else,  been  observed,  and  that  there  has 
been  no  unnecessary  interference  with  the  course  of 
nature  in  the  production  of  man.  The  question  imme- 
diately before  us  is,  Has  there  been  any  interference 
at  all,  or  is  a  man  a  mere  development  from  some  of 
the  germs  of  the  animal  nature?  This  is  now  the  real 
battle  ground  betw^een,  we  will  not  say  contending 
schools  of  evolution,  but  contending  schools  of  fun- 
damental philosophy.  On  the  one  hand  it  is  main- 
tained that  there  is  no  radical  difference  between  the 
mind  of  man  and  that  of  the  higher  animals,  and 
that  there  is  no  impassable  gap  between  the  mental 
faculties  of  the  human  race  and  those  of  the  higher 
animals.  To  prove  this  proposition,  the  highest  men- 
tal activities  of  the  highest  animal  are  brought  into 
comparison  with  the  mental  activities  of  the  low^est 
races,  and  w^ith  the  individual  man  in  the  lowest 
stages  of  his  development. 

Thus  Mr.  Romanes  ^  supposes  that  he  traces  a  sig- 
nificant parallelism  between  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment in  the  ascending  orders  of  animals  and  that  in 
the  infant  of  the  human  species  in  the  first  few  months 
of  its  development.  To  animals  he  ascribes  a  series 
both  of  emotional  and  intellectual  activities,   reaching 


4l8  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

as  high  in  the  order  of  complexity  as  those  attained 
hy  the  child  at  the  age  of  fifteen  months.  He  be- 
lieves that  the  Echinodermata  exercise  memory;  that 
the  larvae  of  insects  possess  primary  instincts  and 
exhibit  surprise  and  fear;  that  mollusks  exercise  asso- 
ciation by  contiguity;  that  insects  and  spiders  recog- 
nize their  offspring,  have  some  parental  affection  and 
social  feeling,  exercise  pugnacity,  industry,  and  curi- 
osity; that  reptiles  and  cephalopods  recognize  their 
friends  and  their  enemies;  that  the  Hymenoptera  are 
able  to  communicate  their  Ideas  and  to  feel  the  bond 
of  sympathy;  that  birds  recognize  pictures,  under- 
stand words,  dream,  and  have  the  emotions  connected 
with  emulation,  pride,  resentment,  aesthetic  love  of 
ornament,  and  terror;  that  the  Carnlvora,  rodents, 
and  ruminants  appreciate  to  some  extent  the  construc- 
tion of  machinery,  and  experience  the  emotions  con- 
nected with  grief,  hate,  cruelty,  and  benevolence;  that 
monkeys  and  elephants  use  tools  to  some  extent,  and 
are  moved  w^Ith  the  feelings  of  revenge  and  rage;  and, 
finally,  that  anthropoid  apes  and  dogs  have  a  rudimen- 
tary conscience  and  an  Indefinite  Idea  of  morality,  and 
exhibit  the  feelings  associated  with  shame,  remorse, 
deceltfulness,  and  whatever  Is  ludicrous.  This  Is  as 
high  a  point  of  development,  Mr.  Romanes  contends, 
as  Is  attained  by  the  child  at  the  age  of  fifteen  months. 


The  Psyrholoi^iral  Evidence 


419 


According,  therefore,  to  the  argument  from  gradual 
approach,  he  maintains  that  we  cannot  in  logical  con- 
sistency refuse  to  supply  the  other  rounds  in  the  lad- 
der which  by  some  adverse  fate  are  acknowledged  to 
be  absent,  and  to  maintain  the  solidarity  of  the  animal 
creation,  and  a  true  brotherhood  between  man  and  the 
lowxr  animals. 

But  it  is  hardly  fair  to  the  human  race  to  estimate 
its  capacities  by  the  development  of  a  child  fifteen 
months  old,  when  he  is  at  the  very  commencement  of 
his  marvellous  intellectual  career.  It  is  later  than 
this  that  his  high  powers  of  conceptual  thought  come 
into  free  play,  and  link  their  products  with  the  rap- 
idly acquired  forms  of  grammatical  speech.  It  is 
much  later  still  that  the  mind  of  the  child  begins  to 
grasp  the  connected  facts  of  the  universe  surrounding 
him,  and  to  enter  upon  that  endless  path  of  inductive 
reasoning  which  enables  him  to  accumulate  knowledge 
without  measure.  It  is  later  still  that  his  eyes  and 
ears  are  open  to  the  beauties  and  harmonies  of  the 
universe  and  that  the  moral  nature  begins  fairly  to 
assert  itself,  and  to  bring  in  upon  the  mind  thoughts 
of  God  and  duty,  with  their  associated  visions  of  im- 
mortality. 

The   marvellous   rapidity   witli    which    the   develop- 
ment  of   these    higher   elements   of   our   nature    takes 


420  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

place  cannot  fail  to  be  a  matter  of  astonishment  even 
to  the  superficial  observer.  Air.  Romanes  confessed 
that  "  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that  when  this 
growth  has  attained  a  certain  point,  it  makes,  so  to 
speak,  a  sudden  leap  of  procuress,  which  may  be  taken 
to  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  development  of  the 
mind  as  the  act  of  birth  does  to  that  of  the  body.  In 
neither  case  is  the  development  anything  like  com- 
pleted. Midway  between  the  slowly  evolving  phases 
in  utero  and  the  slowly  evolving  phases  of  after- 
growth, there  is  in  the  case  of  the  human  body  a 
great  and  sudden  change  at  the  moment  when  it  first 
becomes  separated  from  that  of  its  parent.  And  so, 
there  is  some  reason  to  believe,  it  Is  in  the  case  of 
the  human  mind.  Midway  between  the  gradual 
evolution  of  receptual  ideation  and  the  no  less  gradual 
evolution  of  conceptual,  there  appears  to  be  a  critical 
moment  when  the  soul  first  becomes  detached  from 
the  nutrient  body  of  its  parent  perceptions,  and  w^akes 
up  in  the  new^  w^orld  of  a  consciously  individual  ex- 
istence." ^ 

This  power  of  the  soul  to  take  such  a  leap  of 
progress,  and  to  wake  up  in  the  new  world  of  con- 
scious Individual  existence.  Is  certainly  something  that 
needs  accounting  for.  In  Its  significance  It  covers 
the  whole  breadth  of  the  discussion.     The  possession 


The  Psychological  Evidence  421 

of  such   a   latent   power  makes   all    the   difference  be- 
tween the  mnn  and  the  animal.      Mr.   Romanes'  way 
of    minimizing   the   difficuity    is   successful    only   as   a 
form  of  words.     It  is  as  if  he  were  to  say,  The  only 
difference  between  this  black  powder  and  that  appears 
to  be  that  when  a  match  is  touched  to  one  it  explodes, 
while  the  other  does  not.    But  this  is  the  most  striking 
difference   between    t^unpowder    and    sand.      Or   it    is 
like  saying  of  two  bipeds.  They  walked  together  along 
the  edge  of  the  precipice:  the  principal  difference  be- 
tween them  seemed  to  be  that  one  had  the  power  to 
leap  off  the  precipice  without   falling  to  the  ground, 
while    the    other    could    not    do    it.     This    is    easily 
enough    stated,    but    anatomically    considered,    it    ex- 
presses a  radical  difference  between  a  man  and  a  bird. 
In    reality,    this    difference    which    Mr.    Romanes    so 
slightingly  expresses  is  that  between  a  being  capable  of 
endless  progress  in  knowledge  and  of  one  limited  to 
a  very  narrow  sphere  of  possible  attainment. 

It  signifies  but  little  to  say,  that  there  is  no  radical 
difference  betw^een  men  and  animals  in  the  matter  of 
using  tools,  because,  perchance,  a  chimpanzee  has  been 
known  to  make  use  of  a  stick  to  pry  open  a  door,  or 
an  rpe  to  pick  up  a  stone  to  crack  a  cocoanut.  or  an 
elephant  to  seize  a  broken-off  branch  of  a  tree  with 
v-hich  to  brush  the  flies  from  the  inaccessible  portions 


422  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

of  his  body.  To  say  nothing  of  modern  machinery, 
there  is  really  no  just  comparison  between  these  in- 
stinctive acts  of  animals  in  appropriating  to  their  use 
the  ready-made  products  of  nature  and  that  of  the 
lowest  savage  who  skillfully  constructs  his  sling  and 
bow  and  fashions  his  stone  arrow-point,  or  axe,  or 
lance-head. 

In  the  use  of  fire,  also,  it  is  of  small  significance  to 
find  that  many  of  the  animals  appreciate  its  benefit 
and  seek  its  genial  influence;  as  cats  do  when  thev 
stretch  themselves  in  front  of  the  kitchen  stove,  or 
as  apes  do  when  they  huddle  about  the  smouldering 
trunk  of  a  tree  which  has  been  struck  by  lightning. 
But  man  alone  has  been  able  so  to  profit  from  his 
observations  as  to  keep  fire  from  day  to  day  by  bury- 
ing its  embers,  or  to  create  it  anew^  by  use  of  steel 
and  flint  and  tinder,  or  by  the  still  more  primitive 
process  of  igniting  two  sticks  of  wood  by  rubbing 
them  vigorously  together. 

It  is  an  unworthy  travesty  on  musical  art  to  com- 
pare, as  a  recent  writer  has  done,  the  din  created  by 
a  company  of  chimpanzees  drumming  on  hollow  trees 
and  accompanying  the  sound  with  loud  yells,  to  "  so- 
pranos and  tenors  of  strong  pulmonary  powers,  trying 
to  outshriek  the  clash  of  a  Wagnerian  orchestra."  ^ 

Man  has  no  occasion  to  disparage  the  capacities  of 


The  Psychological  Evidence  423 

the  animal  world  ;  for  he  himself  is  certainly  in  large 
part  animal;  but  the  difference  between  his  mental  ca- 
pacities and  theirs  is  enormous,  and  most  far-reaching 
in  its  significance.  The  power  of  unlimited  progres- 
sion does  not  exist  in  the  lower  animals,  while  it  is 
possessed  b}^  all  races  of  men,  and  has  everywhere  ex- 
hibited itself  in  marvellous  results.  Not  only  is  this 
seen  in  the  products  of  modern  civilization,  but  it  ap- 
pears in  striking  light,  at  the  very  dawn  of  definite 
history,  in  such  structures  as  the  pyramids  of  Egypt 
and  the  dolmens  of  Northern  Europe,  in  the  vaulted 
arch  constructed  in  the  earliest  ages  of  Babylonian 
history,  in  the  early  discovery  of  processes  for  separ- 
ating iron  from  its  ore,  and  for  making  and  hardening 
bronze,  and  the  scarcely  less  remarkable  discovery  and 
use  of  the  elasticity  of  the  bow,  and  of  the  suscepti- 
bility for  domestication  and  improvement  of  various 
plants  and  animals  and  of  their  actual  appropriation 
for  the  use  of  man.  These  higher  powers  of  the  hu- 
man mind  must  be  distinguished  from  the  instincts, 
which  both  in  man  and  animals  are  effective  in  inverse 
ratio  to  the  power  of  inductive  reasoning. 

Animals  and  men  are  indeed  the  common  posses- 
sors of  many  instinctive  powers  which,  at  the  very 
dawn  of  life,  and  m  numerous  emergencies  \n  after 
years,  operate  (h'rectly  without  instruction  for  the  ac- 


424  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

complishment  of  purposes  which  are  essential  for  the 
preservation  of  the  species.  The  first  act  of  the  bird 
in  his  nest  is  to  open  his  bill  to  receive  food.  The 
first  act  of  the  young  of  all  mammals,  including  man, 
is  to  bring  into  use  the  coordinate  muscles  used  in 
extracting  the  mother's  milk.  The  range  of  things 
accomplished  by  instinct  in  animals  is  surprising.  By 
instinct  we  mean  those  activities  for  the  preservation 
of  self  or  of  the  species  which  are  entered  upon  with- 
out instruction,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  without 
consciousness  of  the  ends  which  are  to  be  secured  by 
them.  These  activities  which  are  so  numerous  and 
wonderful  in  the  animal  creation  are  largely  sup- 
planted in  man  by  the  guidance  of  his  cumulative 
wisdom.  But  instinct  is  perfect  at  the  outset:  it  is 
not  amenable  to  instruction :  it  does  not  perceive  its 
ends  through  any  process  of  inductive  reasoning.  As 
we  have  said,  man  has  indeed  a  limited  number  of 
these  instincts,  but  their  influence  in  the  history  of 
the  race  appears  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  develop- 
ment of  his  inductive  powers  of  reasoning.  It  is  in 
these  powers  of  inductive  reasoning,  we  repeat,  that 
the  real  superiority  of  man  appears,  and  the  marvel 
does  not  grow  less  eitlier  in  quantity  or  quality  as 
we  carefully  scan  his  attainments. 

The   difference   between    the   limitations   of   animal 


'Jlic  l\sV(/iolo<{ir(iI   I'.-i-itlcnce  425 

intelligence  and  those  of  man's  is  readily  enough  seen 
if  one  attempts  to  teach  an  animal  any  inductive  sci- 
ence. A  dog  can  be  taught  a  little;  he  can  be  taught 
to  stand  upon  his  head,  to  utter  a  peculiar  bark  when 
he  wishes  to  be  fed,  to  go  in  search  of  his  master  when 
he  is  lost,  and  even  to  scour  the  snowclad  summits 
of  the  Alps  in  search  of  unknown  travellers  who  have 
missed  their  ^^•ay.  But  the  enlargement  of  knowledge 
which  he  is  able  to  make  beyond  w^hat  is  directly  re- 
vealed to  his  senses  is  extremely  limited  in  compari- 
son with  the  lowest  attainments  of  inductive  science. 
So  keen  is  the  dog's  scent,  that  if  he  is  shown  the 
stocking  of  the  child  who  has  strayed  from  home,  he 
can  follow  his  steps  through  the  crowded  mart  of 
the  city  and  find  the  hapless  object  of  his  charge  far 
quicker  than  he  could  be  found  by  the  whole  detective 
force  of  the  government.  But  if  one  undertakes  to 
teach  a  dog  such  a  science  as  geology,  he  will  see  at 
once  the  nature  of  the  dog's  limitations.  Undertake, 
for  instance,  to  get  into  the  mind  of  a  dog  the  theory 
of  the  Glacial  epoch.  Take  him  with  you  to  look  at 
the  scratched  surfaces  of  rock  from  Maine  to  Alaska, 
endeavor  to  get  him  to  understand  the  significance  of 
the  kames,  and  osars,  and  gravel  plains,  and  the  sheet 
of  till  spread  over  the  millions  of  square  miles  of  the 
glaciated  area;  show  him  in  Southern  Ohio  a  granite 


426  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

bowlder  from  the  Laurentian  highlands  and  a  nugget 
of  copper  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior,  and  what 
hope  will  you  have  of  arousing  any  Idea  In  his  brain? 

Yet  the  human  mind  is  everywhere  capable,  if  not 
of  interpreting,  at  least  of  understanding  the  Inter- 
pretation of,  such  w^idely  distributed  facts.  There  Is 
not  an  audience  anywhere  to  be  found  In  the  world 
which,  If  you  can  get  their  attention,  cannot  be  made 
to  see  the  connection  of  these  facts  w^Ith  one  another 
through  the  causal  bond  of  a  glacial  period,  and  there 
is  not  a  hearer  so  stupid  that  he  will  not  ask,  What  Is 
the  cause  of  the  glacial  period  which  you  say  is  the 
cause  of  these  phenomena?  The  human  mind  Is,  by 
nature,  inquisitive  to  a  degree  that  renders  the  rudi- 
ments of  Inquisitiveness  in  the  lower  animals  utterly 
insignificant.  If  we  call  this  impulse  an  instinct  of 
man,  it  Is  the  Instinct  w^hich  impels  one  to  seek  for 
the  cause  of  all  things,  and  does  not  allow  him  to 
rest  until  he  has  formulated  some  Idea  of  the  first 
cause,  that  is,  of  the  Deity.  This  Is  really  the  foun- 
dation of  the  religious  nature  of  man,  so  that,  prop- 
erly enough,  he  has  been  defined  as  "  a  religious 
anlrriaL"  Underlying  all  the  superstitious  practices 
of  the  heathen  world,  there  is  a  pervasive  sense  of  a 
divinity  ruling  over  all. 

There  is  no   end   to  the  enumeration  of  the  subtle 


The    Psyc/inIoi[ii(il    Evidinci'  427 

clues  of  nature  which  the  human  nu'nd  can  take  up 
and  follow  out  to  most  intcrcstinLj  and  comprehensive 
results.  To  draw  another  illustration  from  the  science 
which  has  played  such  a  part  in  the  present  discus- 
sion :  suppose  that  one  insists  that  he  is  not  interested 
in  the  subjects  of  arch;colo^y  and  the  evidences  of 
man's  connection  with  the  Glacial  epoch ;  he  does  .lot 
care  to  consider  such  vulgar  things  as  glacial  dams 
and  glacial  mill  ponds  and  the  erosion  of  ice-laden 
streams,  still  we  would  not  despair  of  interesting  him 
in  our  subject.  Perhaps  he  cares  for  botany,  and 
admires  the  tiny  iio\ver  that  nestles  in  the  wall,  and 
the  luxurious  vine  that  covers  with  its  mass  of  ver- 
dure the  decaying  oak,  or  the  stately  cedar  that  man- 
tles Lebanon  with  its  solemn  shadow.  But  in  studying 
the  distribution  of  these  over  the  earth  he  will  find 
himself  unwittingly  paying  deference  to  glacial  geol- 
ogy. For  what  was  it  but  the  great  ice  sheet  that 
drove  down  to  their  present  habitat  from  the  far 
north  the  bald  cypress  of  the  Southern  States,  the 
gigantic  Sequoias  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  their  near 
relative  the  Chinese  Gl5^ptostrobus  to  the  mountains  of 
Japan  and  Northern  China?  And,  again,  what  but 
this  far-reaching  force  of  glacial  action  could  have 
driven  down  from  the  colder  climates  the  arctic 
plants  now   inhabiting  the  summit   of  Mount  Wash- 


428  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ingtx)n,  and  what  but  this  could  have  forced  the  pa- 
triotic Scotch  heather  to  leave  its  native  mountains 
and  take  up  a  lonelj^  residence  on  the  barren  hills  of 
Eastern  Massachusetts  ? 

If  now^  our  inquisitor  says  that  he  is  not  particu- 
larly interested  in  botany,  and  we  ask  him,  In  w^hat 
then  are  you  interested?  he  will  perhaps  attempt  to 
indicate  something  which  might  seem  as  far  removed 
as  possible  from  our  subject,  and  answer,  Of  all 
things  in  the  world,  I  delight  in  the  study  of  butter- 
flies. But,  alas,  he  is  caught  in  his  own  devices,  and 
unwittingly  has  attached  himself  to  our  triumphal 
glacial  car!  For  has  not  Mr.  Scudder  described 
whole  colonies  of  arctic  butterflies  living  in  lonely 
isolation  about  the  summits  of  Mount  Washington, 
and  how  could  they  by  any  possibility  have  migrated 
thither  except  under  the  conditions  furnished  by  the 
Glacial  epoch?  And  are  not  the  relatives  of  these  col- 
onies found  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  in  the  Alps, 
where  they  bear  testimony  to  the  same  pervasive  in- 
fluence ? 

At  last  in  despair,  he  says,  But  I  am  more  inter- 
ested in  human  history  and  archaeology.  Wherefore, 
then,  is  a  glacialist  asked  to  discourse  on  the  origin 
and  antiquity  of  the  human  race  except  that  the  Gla- 
cial epoch  has  come  in  these  latter  days  to  be  one  of 


The  Psychological  Evidence  429 

the  most  important  and  productive  collateral  branches 
in  historical  and  archnLX)logical  investigation.  And 
this  is  a  connection  which  man  wherever  found  has 
intellectual  capacity  to  understand.  But  how  absurd 
the  idea  of  imparting  this  information  to  an  animal! 
But  these  are  only  a  few  of  the  ten  thousand  illus- 
trations of  the  superior  capacity  of  man's  mind  to 
interpret  nature  and  to  accumulate  knowledge  con- 
cerning its  operations  both  in  distant  space  and  in 
distant  time.  Man  has,  and  so  far  as  w^e  can  see  no 
other  animal  has,  the  marvellous  power  to  transcend 
the  bounds  of  space  and  time  and  to  find 

*'  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,   and  good  in  everything." 

The  student  of  science  is  often  asked  for  the  util- 
ity of  his  investigations.  As  answer,  he  might  put 
in  evidence  all  the  material  accomplishments  of  mod- 
ern civilization.  But,  better  still,  he  may  point  to 
the  enrichment  of  the  Intellectual  life  of  all  who  be- 
come cognizant  of  the  facts  ascertained  and  the  prin- 
ciples established  by  scientific  investigation.  To  add 
a  comprehensive  thought  or  an  important  principle  to 
the  accumulating  stock  of  the  world's  ideas  is  to  in- 
crease the  value  of  human  life  beyond  all  pecuniary 
estimate.     The    world    was    made    for    other    things 


430  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

than  the  production  of  bread  and  butter.  Man  alone 
is  possessed  of  these  marvellous  powers  of  thought 
and  investigation,  while  the  w^hole  world  is  adapted 
to  evoke  these  powers  to  the  utmost,  and  to  give  to 
him  the  highest  mental  satisfaction. 

In  considering  the  means  by  which  the  great  attain- 
ments of  modern  civilization  have  been  reached,  we 
find  that  of  language  standing  out  most  prominently 
of  all.  It  is  by  articulate  speech  and  written  lan- 
guage that  men  are  able  to  formulate  their  thoughts 
and  to  communicate  them  to  one  another.  Thus  the 
wisdom  of  each  becomes  the  wisdom  of  all,  and  the 
attainments  of  one  generation  are  passed  onward  to 
serve  as  the  starting  point  of  progress  for  the  next. 
There  is  really  no  comparison  between  the  service 
rendered  to  man  by  human  speech  and  that  rendered 
to  animals  by  their  imperfect  and  rudimentary  meth- 
ods of  communicating  with  each  other.  Romanes 
thinks  that  if  dogs  had  the  parrot's  power  of  speech, 
or  if  a  parrot  had  a  dog's  brain  and  intelligence,  it 
would  be  only  a  question  of  time  when  they  would 
attain  the  mental  capacity  of  some  of  the  lower  races 
of  mankind.  On  the  contrary,  thought  precedes  lan- 
guage. The  very  existence  of  language  implies  all 
the  essential  human  powers  of  thought.  It  is  be- 
cause men   have   thoughts  to  be   preserved   and   com- 


The    Psychdloi^icdl    Evidence  431 

miinicari'd  that  they  fix  upon  conventional  sounds 
and  s;;jiis  in  which  to  embody  their  ideas.  It  is  an 
impressive  fact  that  liuman  lansjua^e  is  everywhere 
essentially  alike.  Every  language  has  a  grammar; 
twtry  lang^uage  contains  the  essential  concepts  of  hu- 
mj'.n  thought.  The  subh'mest  thoughts  of  the  world 
can  be  translated  into  the  most  barbarous  dialects  in 
existence. 

This  is  illustrated  in  a  remarkable  manner  in  the 
history  of  modern  missions.  Whatever  one  may  say 
about  the  final  character  of  the  religious  conceptions 
of  the  Book,  all  must  grant  that  the  Bible  is  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  noblest  literatures  of  the  world. 
Yet  to-day  there  is  no  nation  so  degraded  that  it  has 
not  a  language  into  which  the  Bible  can  be  trans- 
lated, and  with  little  loss  of  power.  The  evidence 
of  this  is  witnessed  to,  the  world  over,  in  the  results 
of  Christian  missions.  Hundreds  of  languages  have 
been  reduced  to  wanting  by  missionaries,  and  the  Bi- 
ble has  been  translated  into  them  and  disseminated 
for  the  enlightenment  of  the  people.  No  one  has 
borne  more  positive  testimony  than  Air.  ^Darwin  has 
to  the  transforming  effect  of  these  influences  upon 
the  sa\'age  tribes  of  Polynesia,  where,  even  before  his 
visit,  group  after  group  of  islanders  had  been  changed 
by   the   persuasive   influence  of  the   religion   embodied 


432  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

in  the  Bible  from  cannibals  to  well-ordered  com- 
munities in  which  a  shipwrecked  sailor's  life  would 
be  as  sacred  as  in  England  or  America.  In  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Darwin  the  natives  of  Patagonia  were 
possessed  of  about  as  little  mental  capacity,  and  were 
sunk  down  as  low  in  degradation,  as  it  is  possible  to 
conceive  human  beings  to  be.  Yet  the  efforts  of 
missionaries  to  improve  their  character,  and  to  im- 
part to  them  the  noble  and  humanizing  effects  of 
Christian  ideas,  were  so  successful  that  he  became  a 
constant  and  liberal  contributor  to  the  funds  support- 
ing them   in  their  work. 

When,  now,  we  come  to  seek  the  bearing  of  these 
facts  upon  the  question  of  the  origin  and  antiquity 
of  the  human  race,  we  shall  find  that  they  are  both 
direct  and  significant.  These  characteristics  of  man 
which  we  have  taken  as  the  indications  of  his  higher 
nature  are  the  products  of  his  mental  capacities, 
rather  than  their  cause.  It  is  not  the  use  of  tools 
that  has  produced  his  mental  capacity.  It  Is  his  men- 
tal capacity  which  has  invented  tools  and  made  them 
the  means  of  his  progress;  and  among  the  most  im- 
portant of  these  tools  we  must  reckon  the  fire  with 
which  he  cooks  his  food  and  makes  himself  indepen- 
dent of  climatic  changes.      It   is  not  language  which 


The  PsycJioloi^lcal  Evidence  4.^3 

has  produced  the  brain  of  man,  hut  it  is  the  mental 
capacity  associated  with  the  brain  which  has  first 
made  a  demand  for,  and  then  created,  the  language. 
All  the  endless  progress  of  the  inductive  sciences  and 
the  hiij;her  conceptions  of  the  obligation  to  love  his 
fellows  and  to  reverence  his  God  reveal  elements  of 
human  nature  that  have  but  at  least  a  rudimental 
development  in  the  highest  of  the  lower  animals. 

That  there  is  not  the  difference  in  mental  capacity 
between  the  races  of  men  which  is  sometimes  sup- 
posed is  ably  maintained  by  Mr.  Franz  Boas  from 
his  comparison  of  the  ancient  civilizations  of  the  Old 
World  and  the  New.  "  The  civilizations  of  ancient 
Peru  and  Central  America,"  he  maintains,  *'  may 
well  be  compared  with  the  ancient  civilizations  of 
the  Old  World.  In  both  we  find  a  high  stage  of 
political  organization:  we  find  division  of  labor  and 
an  elaborate  ecclesiastical  organization.  Great  archi- 
tectural works  were  undertaken,  requiring  the  coop- 
eration of  many  individuals.  Animals  and  plants 
were  domesticated,  and  the  art  of  writing  had  been 
Invented.  The  inventions  and  knowledge  of  the 
peoples  of  the  Old  World  seem  to  have  been  some- 
what more  numerous  and  extended  than  those  of  the 
races  of  the  New  World,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  q;eneral  status  of  their  civilization  was  nearly 


434  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

equally  high  " ;  '■  adding  that  the  rapidity  of  develop- 
ment in  the  Old  World  is  no  proof  of  greater  ability. 
In    answering    the    question    Why    then    has    there 
been  greater  progress  in  the  Old  World  than  in  the 
New?      Boas  would   say  that   it   is   explained   by   the 
"  laws  of  chance."     We  prefer  to  say  that,  substitut- 
ing the  word   *'  Providence  "    for   "  laws  of   chance," 
the  adequate  explanation  is,  that  the  Old  World  was 
favored  by  the  rise  of  lawgivers,  inventors,  and  lead- 
ers of  special  ability  who  have  made  contributions  of 
world-wide  significance  to  man's  stores  of  knowledge 
and    stock    of    artistic    efficiency,    and    thereby    have 
started    him    forward    upon    a    career    of    cumulative 
progress.      Menes  in   Eg^^pt,    Hammurabi   in   Mesopo- 
tamia,  Moses  in   Israel,   Solon  in  Greece,  the  Caesars 
in   Rome,   Galileo   in    Italy,    Gutenberg   in   Germany, 
Newton  and  Watt  in  England,  Morse  and  Gray  and 
Edison  and  Wilbur  Wright  in  America,  and  such  as 
they,  have  led  in  a  line  of  progress  in  which  the  mul- 
tiude  could  only  follow.    Bereft  of  the  additions  which 
these   and   such   as  they  have   made,   man  would   still 
everywhere  be  in   a  state  of  primitive  barbarism.. 

The  more  probable  scientific  hypothesis  with  ref- 
erence to  the  origin  of  those  higher  capacities  of  the 
human  race  is  that  they  appeared  in  the  world  as 
an   addition   and   positive  increment  to  the  intelligent 


The    Psyrlioloi^ncal    Fyvidcnce  435 

forces  before  in  existence.  If  we  adliere  to  the  de- 
rivati\e  oriiiin  of  man,  we  sliould  sa\  tiiat  to  the 
man  of  science  he  appeared  as  what  breeders  would 
call  a  "  sport."  J^ut  we  need  not  commit  ourselves 
to  any  particular  method  by  which  the  Creator  se- 
cured the  result.  In  any  event  it  must  have  come 
about  in  accordance  with  a  well-ordered  plan.  If  it 
took  place  by  direct  interference,  \\t  may  rest  assured 
the  interference  did  not  occur  until  the  fullness  of 
time.  If  by  foreordination,  it  was  still  a  divine  gift 
inwrouii:ht  into  an  orderly  system. 

At  any  rate,  there  is  no  Greater  philosophical  diffi- 
culty attending  the  theory  of  the  evolution  of  man 
from  nature  by  divine  appointment,  than  there  is  in 
the  well-known  fact  of  the  evolution  of  the  individual 
soul  from  its  parents.  Whence  came  our  individual 
souls?  The  theologians  are  divided  into  tvvo  schools, 
according  as  they  maintain  that  the  soul  is  derived  by 
natural  law  from  the  parents,  or  that  the  soul  is  in 
ever>-  case  a  direct  gift  from  the  Creator.  The  first 
are  called  7>aducianists,  the  second  Creationists.  So 
long  as  they  continue  to  contend  over  this  question 
of  the  mode  of  the  origin  of  the  individual  soul,  one 
may  be  pardoned  for  asking  liberty  of  conviction  with 
reference  to  the  mode  of  the  origin  of  the  higher 
qualities  of  the  race  itself. 


436  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

But  history  forbids  us  to  draw  any  confident  in- 
ferences concerning  the  antiquity  of  man  from  the 
known  rate  of  the  progress  which  he  has  already 
made.  Progress  in  the  world  has  been  by  fits  and 
starts.  Menes  arises,  and  with  him  Egyptian  civili- 
zation. Alexander  comes  upon  the  field,  and  the 
whole  world  changes  front.  Copernicus  gazes  upon 
the  stars,  and  the  earth  no  more  seems  to  stand  still, 
while  the  sun  ceases  to  be  thought  of  as  in  motion. 
The  mariner's  compass  is  discovered,  and  the  stormy 
ocean  ceases  to  be  a  barrier  between  the  continents. 
Stevenson  and  Watt  and  Franklin  and  Field  bring 
forth  their  speculations  about  the  nature  of  steam  and 
electricity,  and  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being 
in  a  new  world.  Yet  all  these  thousands  of  years  the 
larger  part  of  the  human  race  have  been  stationary  in 
their  development.  The  habits  and  customs  of  their 
ancestors  have  settled  down  upon  them  like  a  mid- 
night pall  and  quenched  all  the  progressive  impulses 
of  their  souls.  There  has  been  no  law  of  progress 
in  human  history  from  which  we  can  infer  the  length 
of  time  required  for  the  race  to  attain  the  develop- 
ment of  the  earliest  recorded  history.  The  glittering 
generalities  of  evolution  do  not  help  us  to  any  definite 
chronology. 


77/r  Bihlicdl  Sihenie  437 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  BIBLICAL  SCHEME 

The  men  of  science  belle  all  their  own  pretensions 
to  candor  and  thoroughness  when  they  without  con- 
sideration contemptuously  set  aside  the  evidence  of  the 
Bible  relatini^  to  the  origin  and  antiquity  of  the  hu- 
man race.  For,  in  addition  to  the  great  antiquity  of 
the  documents  incorporated  into  the  book  of  Genesis, 
its  account  of  the  origin  and  distribution  of  the  hu- 
man race  bears  such  internal  marks  of  truthfulness 
that  it  cannot  be  ignored  in  any  really  scientific  treat- 
ment of  the  subject. 

But  in  considering  the  evidence  of  these  Biblical 
documents  it  is  important  to  give  them  a  fair  inter- 
pretation according  to  the  character  of  the  literature 
to  which  the  several  documents  belong.  The  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  is  highly  rhetorical  in  its  form, 
and  has  not  inaptly  been  termed  by  some  a  "  poem  of 
creation."  But  even  so  its  conformity  to  the  modern 
conceptions  of  science,  as  well  as  to  those  of  theology, 
is  so  striking  that  it  has  drawn  from  Haeckel  the 
following  well-deserved  tribute:  "Its  extraordinary 
success  is  explained  not  only  by  its  close  connection 


438  Origin  and  Antiquity   of  Man 

w'lXh.  Jewish  and  Christian  doctrine,  but  also  by  the 
simple  and  natural  chain  of  ideas  which  runs  through 
it,  and  which  contrasts  favorably  w^ith  the  confused  my- 
tholo2;y  of  creation  current  among  most  of  the  ancient 
nations.  .  .  .Two  great  and  fundam.ental  ideas,  common 
also  to  the  non-miraculous  theory'  of  development, 
meet  us  in  the  Mosaic  hypothesis  of  creation  with 
surprising  clearness  and  simplicity  —  the  idea  of  sep- 
aration or  differentiation,  and  the  idea  of  progressive 
development  or  perfecting.  ...  In  his  [Moses']  the- 
ory there  lies  hidden  the  ruling  idea  of  a  progressive 
development  and  a  differentiation  of  the  originally 
sim.ple  matter.  We  can  therefore  bestow  our  just 
and  sincere  admiration  on  the  Jewish  law^giver's  grand 
insight  into  nature,  and  his  simple  and  natural,  hy- 
pothesis of  creation,  without  discovering  in  it  a  so- 
called  Divine  Revelation."  ^ 

Conformably  to  the  teachings  of  science,  the  writer 
of  Genesis  represents  man  as  the  latest  born  of  crea- 
tion, and  states  the  fact  in  a  form  that  need  give  no 
ofifense  to  modern  science.  He  has  a  very  inade- 
quate knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  words  who  would 
limit  the  significance  of  "  dust  of  the  earth  "  to  un- 
organized clay  and  sand.  At  the  same  time  it  will 
be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  any  one  to  account 
for  the  higher  nature  of  man  in  any  better  way  than 


The  Biblical  Schcnic  439 

it  is  done  in  Genesis.  It  is  most  in  accordance  with 
the  facts  to  look'  upon  the  higher  nature  of  man  as  a 
divine  izift;  and  the  method  of  stating  this  by  the 
sacred  writer  is  too  subh'me  not  to  be  true.  "And 
God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  ima(2;e,  after  our 
likeness."  "And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life;  and  man  became  a  living  soul." 

In  respect  to  the  account  of  the  creation  of  woman, 
\t  is  sufficient  to  say,  with  Dr.  Bartlett,-  that  "  the 
fact  of  sex,  not  only  in  the  human  species,  but  through- 
out animated  life,  and  its  unfailing  adjustment  from 
the  beginning,  is  a  fact  before  which,  when  fairly 
considered,  the  most  enthusiastic  evolutionist  has  noth- 
ing satisfactory  to  offer.  So  infinite  are  the  proba- 
bilities against  a  single  individual  appearing  in  exactly 
the  right  time  and  with  the  right  constitution  to  be 
in  perfect  correlation  to  another  individual  for  the 
continuation  of  the  species,  and  so  inconceivably  in- 
finite against  this  occurrence  taking  place  through  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  species  and  countless  millions 
of  individuals,  and  in  such  wise  as  to  insure  its  never- 
failing  continuance,  that  one  need  hardly  hesitate  to 
pronounce  the  statement  of  the  direct  creation  of  the 
first  woman  to  be  the  most  simple  and  the  most  prob- 
able   explanation.      Nothing    certain     can     be    alleged 


440  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

against  it,  and  nothing  certain,  if  anything  probable, 
can   be  advanced   instead  of  it."  ^ 

It  is  proper,  however,  to  add  that  the  word  trans- 
lated "  rib  "  has  no  such  definite  meaning  in  Hebrew 
as  our  translators  have  given  it.  Elsewhere  it  is  given 
the  generic  meaning  of  "  side."  As  the  object  of  pre- 
serving this  account  is  to  enforce  the  sanctity  of  mar- 
riage, much  liberty  must  in  reason  be  given  to  the 
use  of  figurative  language;  and  there  is  room,  also 
to  regard  with  favor  those  who  would  understand  the 
account  of  woman's  creation  as  being  a  vision  of  the 
first  man,  when,  as  represented,  he  had  fallen  into 
a  deep  sleep.  The  straits  to  which  naturalists  are 
driven  in  their  efforts  to  account  for  sex  is  shown  in 
Darwin's  suggestion  that,  in  conformity  with  the.  my- 
thology of  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  remote  original 
ancestor  of  man  was  an  hermaphrodite.  The  discus- 
sions between  the  polygenists  and  the  monogenists  are 
well  nigh  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  unity  of  the  hu- 
man race  is  now  so  generally  accepted  that  it  is 
scarcely   necessary   to   consider  it   as   needing   defense. 

Mankind  has  distributed  itself  from  some  common 
center.  The  question  as  to  how  the  finishing  touches 
were  put  on  to  the  species  may  never  be  known,  and 
need  not  seriously  concern  us  in  the  present  discus- 
sion.    The  mystery  is  not  lessened  by  the  assumption 


The  Biblical  Scheme  441 

that  it  was  done  by  gradual  approach  through  insensi- 
ble stages  of  the  progress.  But  it  is  as  unscientific  to 
tie  the  hands  of  the  Creator  to  that  process  as  to  any 
other.  In  the  words  of  Quatrcfages,  *'  Man  is  evi- 
dently an  exceptional  or  aberrant  type  among  mam- 
mals. He,  alone,  is  constructed  for  a  vertical  position; 
he,  alone,  has  true  hands  and  feet;  he,  alone,  exhibits 
the  highest  degree  of  cerebral  development,  and  pos- 
sesses that  superiority  of  intelligence  which  makes  him 
master  of  all  around  him. 

"  To  allow  that  the  human  type,  though  the  most 
perfect  of  all  types,  the  exceptional  genus  'm  the  midst 
of  all  others,  has  come  into  existence  in  several  cen- 
ters of  appearance  without  characterising  any,  would 
be  to  make  him  a  solitary  exception. 

"  However  strong  may  be  our  polygenistic  tenden- 
cies, and  how^ever  many  species  we  may  admit,  we 
cannot  help  acknowledging  that  the  original  localisa- 
tion of  the  human  ^enus  in  a  single  centre  of  appear- 
ance and  the  characterisation  of  this  centre  by  him 
are  the  logical  consequence  of  all  facts  attested  by 
zoological  geography."  - 

It  is  significant,  moreover,  that  the  original  center 
of  the  human  race  is  located  by  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  that  which  has  been  in- 
dicated by  all  scientific  inquiry.    Science  no  less  than 


442  Origin  and  Antiquity   of  Ulan 

the  Bible  has  a  "  Garden  of  Eden,"  somewhere  in,  or 
near,  Southern  Asia,  where  man  could  at  iirst  live  in 
paradisaical  conditions  and  from  which  both  he  and 
the  most  important  animals  and  plants  upon  which  he 
is  dependent  for  sustenance  have  migrated  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  According  to  the  best  interpretation,  the 
Garden  of  Eden  described  in  Genesis  was  located  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  Euphrates  Valley,  near  the  head 
of  the  Persian  Gulf,  where  the  Karun  and  the  Kerk- 
hah  rivers,  coming  down  from  the  east,  join  the  Satt 
el-Arab,  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates. 

As  to  the  date  of  the  appearance  of  man  at  this 
center,  there  seems  to  be  a  serious  discrepancy  between 
the  statement  of  Scripture  and  the  scientific  inductions 
which  we  have  so  confidently  made.  To  remove  this 
discrepancy  it  is  necessar}^  to  give  close  attention  to 
the  question  of  Biblical  chronology.  On  the  face  of 
them  the  genealogies  in  the  fifth  and  tenth  chapters 
of  Genesis  limit  the  antiquity  of  the  human  race  to 
about  six  thousand  years.  To  obviate  this  objection 
we  can  do  no  better  than  to  incorporate  entire  an 
article  upon  "  Primitive  Chronology  "  by  the  able  and 
orthodox  Professor  William  Henry  Green  of  Prince- 
ton, prepared  at  my  solicitation,  and  published  in  the 
Bihliotheca    Sacra.    April,    1890,    and    ever    after    re- 


The  Biblical  Sclic/ic  44.-; 

ferred    to    by    him    as   enihoilyini^   his   mature   wisdom 
upon   the  subject. 

Thv-  question  of  the  possible  reconciliation  of  the 
results  of  scientific  inquiry  respecting  the  antiquity  of 
man  and  the  ajie  of  the  world  with  the  Scripture 
chronolooiy  has  been  long  and  earnestly  debated.  On 
the  one  hand,  scientists,  deeming  them  irreconcilable, 
have  been  led  to  distrust  the  divine  authority  of  the 
Scripture;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  believers  in  the  di- 
vine word  have  been  led  to  look  upon  the  investiga- 
tions of  science  with  an  unfriendly  eye,  as  though 
they  were  antagonistic  to  religious  faith.  In  my  reply 
to  Bishop  Colenso  in  1863,  I  had  occasion  to  examine 
the  method  and  structure  of  the  Biblical  genealogies, 
and  incidentally  ventured  the  remark"*  that  herein  lay 
the  solution  of  the  whole  matter.  I  said:  ''There 
is  an  element  of  uncertainty  in  a  computation  of  time 
which  rests  upon  genealogies,  as  the  sacred  chronology 
so  largely  does.  Who  is  to  certify  us  that  the  ante- 
diluvian and  ante-Abrahamic  genealogies  have  not  been 
condensed  in  the  same  manner  as  the  post-Abrahamic? 
.  .  .  Our  current  chronology  is  based  upon  the  prima 
facie  impression  of  these  genealogies.  .  .  .  But  if  these 
recently  discovered  indications  of  the  antiquity  of  man, 
over  which  scientific  circles  are  now  so  excited,  shall, 
when  carefully  inspected  and  thoroughly  weighed, 
dem.onstrate  all  that  any  have  imagined  they  might 
demonstrate,  what  then?  They  will  simply  show  that 
the  popular  chronology  is  based  upon   a  wrong  inter- 


444  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

pretati'on,  and  that  a  select  and  partial  register  of  ante- 
Abrahamic  names  has  been  mistaken  for  a  complete 
one."  Further  reflection  has  confirmed  me  in  the 
correctness  of  the  opinion  then  expressed. 

At  the  courteous  request  of  the  Editors  of  the  Bib- 
liotheca  Sacra  I  here  repeat,  with  a  few  verbal  changes, 
the  discussion  of  the  Biblical  genealogies  above  re- 
ferred to,  and  add  some  further  considerations  which 
seem  to  me  to  justify  the  belief  that  the  genealogies 
in  Genesis,  chapters  v.  and  xi,,  were  not  intended  to 
be  used,  and  cannot  properly  be  used,  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  chronology. 

It  can  scarcely  be  necessary  to  adduce  proof  to  one 
who  has  even  a  superficial  acquaintance  with  the  gene- 
alogies of  the  Bible,  that  these  are  frequently  abbre- 
viated by  the  omission  of  unimportant  names.  In 
fact,  abridgement  is  the  general  rule,  induced  by  the 
indisposition  of  the  sacred  writers  to  encumber  their 
pages  with  more  names  than  were  necessary  for  their 
immediate  purpose.  This  is  so  constantly  the  case, 
and  the  reason  for  it  so  obvious,  that  the  occurrence 
of  it  need  create  no  surprise  anywhere,  and  we  are  at 
liberty  to  suppose  it  whenever  anything  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  favors  that  belief. 

The  omissions  in  the  genealogy  of  our  Lord  as 
given  in  Matt.  i.  are  familiar  to  all.  Thus  in  verse 
8  three  names  are  dropped  between  Jo  ram  and  Ozias 
(Uzziah),  viz.,  Aha/iah  (2  Kings  viii.  25),  Toash 
(2  Kings  xii.  i),  and  Amaziah  (2  Kings  xiv.  i)  ;  and 
in    verse    11    Jehoiakim    is    omitted    after    Josiah    (2 


77/r  Biblical  Schcnie  445 

Kings  xxlii.  34;  i  Chron.  iii.  ib)  ;  and  in  verse  i  the 
entire  i^enealo^y  is  siimmeil  up  in  two  steps,  "  Jesus 
Christ,  the  son  of  David,  the  son  of  Abraham." 

Other  instances  abound  elsewhere;  we  mention  only 
a  few  of  the  most  striking.  In  i  Chron.  xxvi.  24  we 
read  in  a  list  of  appointments  made  by  King  David 
(see  I  Chron.  xxiv.  3  ;  xxv.  i  ;  xxvi.  26),  that  Shebuel,^ 
the  son  of  Gershom,  the  son  of  Moses,  was  ruler  of 
the  treasures;  and  again  in  i  Chron.  xxiii.  15,  16,  we 
find  it  written,  **  The  sons  of  Moses  were  Gershom 
and  Eliezer.  Of  the  sons  of  Gershom  Shebuel  was 
the  chief."  Now  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  au- 
thor of  Chronicles  was  so  grossly  ignorant  as  to  sup- 
pose that  the  grandson  of  Moses  could  be  living  in  the 
reign  of  David,  and  appointed  by  him  to  a  responsible 
office.  Again,  in  the  same  connection  ( i  Chron.  xxvi. 
3O,  ^^e  read  that  "among  the  Hebronites  was  Jeri- 
jah  the  chief";  and  this  Jerijah,  or  Jeriah  (for  the 
names  are  identical),  was,  according  to  xxiii.  19,  the 
first  of  the  sons  of  Hebron,  and  Hebron  was  (ver. 
12)  the  son  of  Kohath,  the  son  of  Levi  (ver.  6).  So 
that  if  no  contraction  in  the  genealogical  lists  is  al- 
lowed, we  have  the  great-grandson  of  Levi  holding  a 
prominent  office  in  the  reign  of  David. 

The  genealogy  of  Ezra  is  recorded  in  the  book 
which  bears  his  name;  but  we  learn  from  another  pas- 
sage, in  which  the  same  line  of  descent  is  given,  that 
it  has  been  abridged  by  the  omission  of  six  consecutive 
names.  This  will  appear  from  the  following  compari- 
son, viz: — 


446 


Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


Chron.  vi.   3- 

I. 

Aaron 

2. 

Eleazar 

3- 

Phinehas 

4- 

Abishua 

5- 

Bukki 

6. 

Uzzi 

7- 

Zerahiah 

8. 

Meraioth 

9- 

Amariah 

10. 

Ahitub 

II. 

Zadok 

12. 

Ahimaaz 

13- 

Azariah 

14. 

Johanan 

15- 

Azariah 

16. 

Amariah 

17- 

Ahitub 

18. 

Zadok 

19- 

Shallum 

20. 

Hilkiah 

21. 

Azariah 

22. 

Seraiah 

Ezra  vii.   1-5. 
Aaron 
Eleazar 
Phinehas 
Abishua 
Bukki 
Uzzi 
Zerahiah 
Meraioth 


Azariah 

A'Tiariah 

Ahitub 

Zndok 

Shnllum 

Hilkiah 

Azariah 

Peraiah 

Ezra 


Still  further,  Ezra  relates   (viii.   i,  2)  : — 

"  These  are  now  the  chief  of  their  fathers,  this  i3 
the  genealogy  of  them  that  went  up  with  me  from 
Babylon,  in  the  reign  of  Artaxer-xes  the  king.  Of  the 
sons  of  Phinehas,  Gershom.  Of  the  sons  of  Ithamar, 
Deniel.     Of  the  sons  of  David,   Hattush." 

Here,  if  no  abridgement  of  the  genealogy  is  al- 
lowed, we  should  have  a  great-grandson  and  a  grand- 
son of  Aaron,  and  a  son  of  David  coming  up  with 
Ezra  from  Babylon  after  the  captivity. 

This  disposition  to  abbreviate  genealogies  by  the 
omission  of  whatever  is  unessential  to  the  immediate 
purpose  of  the  writer  is  shown  by  still  more  remark- 


Tlie  Bihiuul  ScJieme  447 

able  reductions  than  those  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering. Persons  of  diiierent  degrees  of  relationship 
are  sometimes  tlirown  together  under  a  common  title 
descriptive  of  the  majority,  and  all  words  of  expla- 
nation, even  those  which  seem  essential  to  the  sense, 
are  rigorously  excluded,  the  supplying  of  these  chasms 
being  left  to  the  independent  knowledge  of  the  reader. 
Hence  several  passages  in  the  genealogies  of  Chron- 
icles have  now  become  hopelessly  obscure.  They  may 
have  been  intelligible  enough  to  contemporaries;  but 
for  those  who  have  no  extraneous  sources  of  informa- 
tion, the  key  to  their  explanation  is  wanting.  In  other 
cases  we  are  able  to  understand  them,  because  the 
information  necessary  to  make  them  intelligible  is 
supplied  from  parallel  passages  of  Scripture.  Thus 
the  opening  verses  of  Chronicles  contain  the  following 
bald  list  of  names  without  a  w^ord  of  explanation,  viz. : 
Adam,  Seth,  Enosh ;  Kenan,  Mahalalel,  Jared ;  Enoch, 
Methuselah,  Lamech;  Noah,  Shem,  Ham,  Japheth. 

We  are  not  told  who  these  persons  are,  how  they 
were  related  to  each  other,  or  whether  they  w^re  re- 
lated. The  writer  presumes  that  his  readers  have  the 
book  of  Genesis  in  their  hands,  and  that  the  simple 
mention  of  these  names  in  their  order  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  remind  them  that  the  first  ten  trace  the  line 
of  descent  from  father  to  son  from  the  first  to  the 
second  great  progenitor  of  mankind;  and  that  the 
last  three  are  brothers,  although  nothing  is  said  to 
indicate  that  their  relationship  is  different  from  the 
preceding. 


448  Origin  and  Antiquity   of  Man 

Again  the  family  of  Eliphas,  the  son  of  Esau,  is 
spoken  of  in  the  following  terms  in  i  Chron.  i.  36: 
"The  sons  of  Eliphaz:  Teman  and  Omar,  Zephi  and 
Gatam,  Kenaz  and  Timna,  and  Amalek." 

Now,  by  turning  to  Genesis  xxxvi.  11,  12,  we  shall 
see  that  the  first  five  are  sons  of  Eliphaz,  and  the 
sixth  his  concubine,  who  was  the  mother  of  the  sev- 
enth. This  is  so  plainly  written  in  Genesis  that  the 
author  of  the  Chronicles,  were  he  the  most  inveterate 
blunderer,  could  not  have  mistaken  it.  But  trusting 
to  the  knowledge  of  his  readers  to  supply  the  omis- 
sion, he  leaves  out  the  statement  respecting  Eliphaz's 
concubine,  but  at  the  same  time  connects  her  name  and 
that  of  her  son  with  the  family  to  w^hich  they  belong, 
and  this  though  he  was  professedly  giving  a  statement 
of  the  sons  of  Eliphaz. 

So,  likewise,  in  the  pedigree  of  Samuel  (or  Shem- 
uel,  ver.  33,  the  difference  in  orthrography  is  due  to 
our  translators,  and  is  not  in  the  original),  which  is 
given  in  i  Chron.  vi.  in  both  an  ascending  and  de- 
scending series.  Thus  in  verses  22-24:  "The  sons  of 
Kohath;  Amminadab  his  son,  Korah  his  son,  Assir 
his  son;  Elkanah  his  son,  and  Ebisaph  his  son,  and 
Assir  his  son;  Tahath  his  son,"  etc. 

The  extent  to  which  the  framer  of  this  list  has 
studied  comprehensiveness  and  conciseness  will  appear 
from  the  fact,  which  no  one  would  suspect  unless  in- 
formed from  other  sources,  that  while  the  general  law 
which  prevails  in  it  is  that  of  descent  from  father  to 
son,  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  names  represent  broth- 


The  Biblical  Scheme  449 

crs.  This  is  shown  by  a  comparison  of  Ex.  vi.  24, 
and  the  parallel  ijenealopjy,  i  Chron.  vi.  36,  37.  So 
that  the  true  line  of  descent  is  the  following;,  viz.: — 

In    ver.    22-24— Kohath  ^"   "^er.    37-38— Kohath 
Amminadab  Izhar 

Korah  Korah 

Assir,    Elkanah,  Ebiasaph  Ebiasaph 

Assir  Assir 

Tahath,    etc.  Tahath,    etc. 

The  circumstance  that  the  son  of  Kohath  is  called 
in  one  list  Amminadab,  and  in  the  other  Izhar,  is  no 
real  discrepancy  and  can  create  no  embarassment, 
since  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  the  same  person  to 
have  two  names.  Witness  Abram  and  Abraham;  Ja- 
cob and  Israel ;  Joseph  and  Zaphenath-paneah,  Gen. 
xli.  45,  Hoshea,  Jehoshua,  Num.  xiii.  16  (or  Joshua) 
and  Jeshua,  Neh.  viii.  17,  Gideon  and  Jerrubbaal, 
Jud<z.  vi.  3?.,  Solomon  and  Jedidiah,  2  Sam.  xii.  24, 
25,  Azariah  and  Uzziah,  2  Kings  xv.  i,  13,  Daniel 
and  Belteshazzar,  Hananiah,  Mishael,  Azariah  and 
Shadrach,  Meshach,  Abednego,  Dan.  i.  7;  Saul  and 
Paul,  Thomas  and  Didymus,  Cephas  and  Peter,  and 
in  profane  history  Cyaxares  and  Darius,  Octavianus 
and  Augustus,  Napoleon  and  Bonaparte,  Ferretti  and 
Pius  IX. 

The  genealogy  of  Moses  and  Aaron  is  thus  stated 
in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Exodus: — 

Ver.  16.  "And  these  are  the  names  of  the  sons  of 
Levi,  according  to  their  generations;  Gershon,  and 
Kohath,  and  Merarl:  and  the  years  of  the  life  of  Levi 
were  an  hundred  and  thirty  and  seven  years." 


450  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

17.  "The  sons  of  Gershon  .  .  .  ." 

18.  "  And  the  sons  of  Kohath ;  Amram,  and  Izhar, 
and  Hehron,  and  Uzziel ;  and  the  years  of  the  life  of 
Kohath  were  an  hundred  and  thirty  and  three  years." 

19.  "And  the  sons  of  Merari  .  .  .  ." 

20.  "  And  Amram  took  him  Jochebed  his  fa- 
ther's sister  to  wife;  and  she  bare  him  Aaron  and 
Moses:  and  the  years  of  the  life  of  Amram  were  an 
hundred  and  thirty  and  seven  years." 

21.  "  And  the  sons  of  Izhar  .  .  .  ." 

22.  "  And  the  sons  of  Uzziel  .  .  .  ." 

There  is  abundant  proof  that  this  genealogy  has 
been  condensed,  as  we  have  already  seen  that  so  many 
others  have  been,  by  the  dropping  of  som.e  of  the  less 
important  names. 

This  is  afforded,  in  the  first  place,  by  parallel  gene- 
alogies of  the  same  period ;  as  that  of  Bezaleel  ( i 
Chron.  ii.  18-20),  which  records  seven  generations 
from  Jacob ;  and  that  of  Joshua  ( i  Chron.  vii.  23- 
27),  which  records  eleven.  Now  it  is  scarcely  con- 
ceivable that  there  should  be  eleven  links  in  the  line 
of  descent  from  Jacob  to  Joshua,  and  only  four  from 
Jacob  to  Moses. 

A  still  more  convincing  proof  is  yielded  by  Num. 
iii.  19,  27,  28,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  four 
sons  of  Kohath  severally  gave  rise  to  the  families  of 
the  Amramites,  the  Isharites,  the  Hebronites,  and  the 
Uzzielites;  and  that  the  number  of  the  male  mem- 
bers of  these  families  of  a  month  old  and  upward  was 
8,600   one   vear   after    the    Exodus.      So    that,    if   no 


The  Bihiuai  Scheme  45  I 

abridgement  has  taken  place  in  the  j2;cnealop;y,  the 
grandfather  of  Moses  had,  in  the  lifetime  of  the  lat- 
ter, 8,(300  descendants  of  the  male  sex  alone,  2,750  of 
them  being  between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  fifty 
(Num.  iv.  36). 

Another  proof  equally  convincing  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  Levi's  son  Kohath  was  born  before  the 
descent  into  Egypt  (Gen.  xlvi.  11);  and.  the  abode 
of  the  children  of  Israel  in  Egypt  continued  430  years 
(Ex.  xii.  40,  41).  Now  as  Moses  was  eighty  years 
old  at  the  Exodus  (Ex.  vii.  7)  he  must  have  been 
born  more  than  350  years  after  Kohath,  who  conse- 
quently could   not  have  been  his  own  grandfather. 

This  genealogy,  w^hose  abbreviated  character  is  so 
clearly  established,  is  of  special  importance  for  the 
immediate  purpose  of  this  paper,  because  it  might  ap- 
pear, at  first  sight,  as  though  such  an  assumption  v^^as 
precluded  in  the  present  instance,  and  as  though  the 
letter  of  Scripture  shut  us  up  to  the  inevitable  con- 
clusion that  there  were  four  links,  and  no  more,  from 
,  Jacob  to  Moses.  The  names  which  are  found  Vvithout 
deviation  in  all  the  g'enealogies  are  Jacob,  Levi,  Kohath, 
Amram,  Moses  (Ex.  vi.  16-20;  Num.  iii.  17-19  - 
xxvi.  57-59;  I  Chron.  vi.  1-3,  16-18;  xxiii.  6,  12, 
13).  Now  unquestionably  Levi  was  Jacob's  own 
son.  So  likewise  Kohath  was  the  son  of  Levi  (Gen. 
xlvi.  I T )  and  born  before  the  descent  into  Egypt. 
Amram  also  Vvas  the  immediate  descendant  of  Ko- 
hath. It  does  not  seem  possible,  as  Kurtz  proposed, 
to  insert  the  missing  links  between  them.     For,  in  the 


452  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

first  place,  according  to  Num.  xxvi.  59,  "  The  name 
of  Amram's  wife  was  Jochebed,  the  daughter  of  Levi, 
whom  her  mother  bare  to  Levi  in  Egypt,"  this  Joche- 
bed being  (Ex.  vi.  20),  Amram's  aunt,  or  his  fa- 
ther's sister.  Now,  it  is  true,  that  "  a  daughter  of 
Levi  "  might  have  the  general  sense  of  a  descendant 
of  Levi,  as  the  woman  healed  by  our  Lord  (Luke  xiii. 
16)  is  called  "a  daughter  of  Abraham";  and  her 
being  born  to  Levi  might  simply  mean  that  she 
sprang  from  him  (comp.  Gen.  xlvi.  25).  But  these 
expressions  must  here  be  taken  in  a  strict  sense,  and 
Jochebed  accordingly  must  have  been  Levi's  own 
daughter  and  the  sister  of  Kohath,  who  must  in  con- 
sequence have  been  Am.ram's  own  father.  This  ap- 
pears from  a  second  consideration,  viz.,  that  Amram 
was  (Num.  iii.  27)  the  father  of  one  of  the  subdi- 
visions of  the  Kohathites,  these  subdivisions  springing 
from  Kohath's  own  children  and  comprising  together 
8,600  male  descendants.  Moses'  father  surely  could 
not  have  been  the  ancestor  of  one-fourth  of  this  num- 
ber in  Moses'  own  days. 

To  avoid  this  difficulty  Tiele  and  Keil  assume  that 
there  were  two  Am  rams,  one  the  son  of  Kohath,  an- 
other the  father  of  Moses,  who  was  a  more  remote 
descendant  but  bore  the  same  name  with  his  ancestor. 
This  relieves  the  embarrassment  created  by  the  Am- 
ramites  (Num.  iii.  27),  but  is  still  liable  to  that 
which  arises  from  n^aking  Jochebed  the  mother  of 
Moses.  And  further,  the  structure  of  the  genealogy 
in    Ex.    vi.    is    such    as    to    make    this    hypothesis   un- 


The  Biblical  Scheme  4S/> 

natural  and  improbable.  Verse  i6  names  the  three 
sons  of  Levi,  Gershom,  Kohath,  and  Merari ;  ver. 
17-19,  the  sons  of  each  in  their  order;  ver.  20-22, 
the  children  of  Koh?fth's  sons;  ver.  23,  24,  contain 
descendants  of  tbe  next  ojeneration,  and  ver.  25  the 
generation  next  foUowin^^  Now,  according:  to  the 
view  of  Tiele  and  Keil,  we  must  either  suppose  that 
the  Amram,  Izhar,  and  Uzziel  of  ver.  20-22  are  all 
different  from  the  Amram,  Izhar,  and  Uzziel  of  ver. 
18,  or  else  that  Amram,  though  belonging  to  a  later 
generation  than  Izhar  and  Uzziel,  is  introduced  before 
them,  which  the  regular  structure  of  the  genealogy 
forbids;  and  besides,  the  sons  of  Izhar  and  the  sons 
of  Uzziel,  who  are  here  named,  were  the  contem.por- 
aries  of  Moses  and  Aaron  the  sons  of  Amram  (Num. 
xvi.   1 ;  Lev.  x.  4). 

This  subject  may  be  relieved  from  all  perplexity, 
however,  by  observing  that  Amram  and  Jochebed  were 
not  the  immediate  parents,  but  the  ancestors  of  Aaron 
and  Moses.  How  many  generations  may  have  inter- 
vened, we  cannot  tell.  It  is  indeed  said  (Ex.  vi.  20; 
Num.  xxvi.  59),  that  Jochebed  bare  them  to  Amram. 
But  in  the  language  of  the  genealogies  this  simply 
means  that  they  were  descended  from  her  and  from 
Amram.  Thus,  in  Gen.  xlvi.  18,  after  recording  the 
sons  of  Zilpah,  her  grandsons,  and  her  great-grand- 
sons, the  writer  adds,  "  These  are  the  sons  of  Zilpah 
....  and  these  she  bare  unto  Jacob,  even  sixteen 
souls."  The  same  thing  recurs  in  the  case  of  Bilhah 
(ver.  25)  :  "  She  bare  these  unto  Jacob;  all  the  souls 


454  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

were  seven."  (Conip.  also  ver.  15,  22.)  No  one 
can  pretend  here  that  the  author  of  this  register  did 
not  use  the  terms  understandingly  of  descendants  be- 
yond the  first  ;j;cneration.  In  like  manner,  according 
to  Aiatt.  i.  II,  Josias  begat  his  grandson  Jechonias, 
and  ver.  8.  joram  begat  his  great-great-grandson 
Ozias.  And  in  Gen.  x.  15-18  Canaan,  the  grandson 
of  Noah,  is  said  to  have  begotten  several  whole  na- 
tions, the  Jebusite,  the  Amorite,  the  Girgasite,  the 
Hivite,  etc.  (Comp.  also  Gen.  xxv.  23;  Deut.  iv. 
25;  2  Kings  XX.  18;  Isa.  li.  2.)  Nothing  can  be 
plainer,  therefore,  than  that,  in  the  usage  of  the  Bi- 
ble, "  to  bear  ".  and  "  to  beget  "  are  used  in  a  wide 
sense  to  indicate  descent,  without  restriction  to  the 
immediate  offspring." 

It  is  no  serious  objection  to  this  view  of  the  case 
that  in  Lev.  x.  4  IJzziel,  Amram's  brother,  is  called 
"  the  uncle  of  Aaron."  The  Hebrew  w^ord  here  ren- 
dered "  uncle,"  though  often  specifically  applied  to  a 
definite  degree  of  relationship,  has,  both  from  etymol- 
ogy and  usage,  a  much  wider  sense.  A  great-great- 
grand-uncle  is  still  an  uncle,  and  would  properly  be 
described  by  the  term  here  used. 

It  may  also  be  observed  that  in  the  actual  history 
of  the  birth  of  Moses  his  parents  are  not  called  Am- 
ram  and  Jochebed.  It  is  simply  said  (Ex.  ii.  i), 
**  and  there  \^•cnt  a  man  of  the  house  of  Levi,  and 
took  to  wife  a  daughter  of  Levi." 

After  these  preliminary  observations,  which  were 
originally  drawn    up   for  another  purpose,   I   come  to 


The  Bibl'iral  Scheme  455 

tlie  more  immediate  design  of  the  present  paper,  by 
proceeding  to  inquire,  \\  liether  the  genealogies  of  Gen. 
V.  and  xi.  are  necessarily  to  be  considered  as  complete, 
and  embracing  all  the  links  in  the  line  of  descent  from 
Adam  to  Noah  and  from  Shcm  to  Abraham.  And 
upon  this  I   remark — 

I.  That  the  analogy  of  Scripture  genealogies  is 
decidedly  against  such  a  supposition.  In  numerous 
other  instances  there  is  incontrovertible  evidence  of 
more  or  less  abridgement.  This  may  even  be  the  case 
where  various  circumstances  combine  to  produce  a 
different  impression  at  the  outset.  Nevertheless,  we 
have  seen  that  this  first  impression  may  be  dissipated 
by  a  more  careful  examination  and  a  comparison  of 
collateral  data.  The  result  of  our  investigations  thus 
far  is  suflRcient  to  show  that  it  is  precarious  to  assume 
that  any  Biblical  genealogy  is  designed  to  be  strictly 
continuous,  unless  it  can  be  subjected  to  some  external 
tests  which  prove  it  to  be  so.  And  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  the  Scriptures  furnish  no  collateral  in- 
formation whatever  respecting  the  period  covered  by 
the  genealogies  now  in  question.  The  creation,  the 
Flood,  the  call  of  Abraham,  are  great  facts,  which 
stand  out  distinctly  In  primeval  sacred  history.  A 
few  incidents  respecting  our  first  parents  and  their 
sons  Cain  and  Abel  are  recorded.  Then  there  Is  an 
almost  total  blank  until  the  Flood,  with  nothing 
whatever  to  fill  the  gap,  and  nothing  to  suggest  the 
length  of  time  intervening  but  what  is  found  In  the 
genealogy  stretching  between  these  two  points.     And 


456  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

the  case  is  substantially  the  same  from  the  Flood  to 
Abraham.  So  far  as  the  Biblical  records  go,  we  are 
left  not  only  without  adequate  data,  but  without  any 
data  whatever,  which  can  be  brought  into  comparison 
with  these  genealogies  for  the  sake  of  testing  their 
continuity  and  completeness. 

If,  therefore,  any  really  trustworthy  data  can  be 
gathered  from  any  source  whatever,  from  any  realm 
of  scientific  or  antiquarian  research,  which  can  be 
brought  into  comparison  with  these  genealogies  for 
the  sake  of  determining  the  question,  whether  they 
have  noted  every  link  in  the  chain  of  the  descent,  or 
whether,  as  in  other  manifest  instances,  links  have 
been  omitted,  such  data  should  be  welcomed  and  the 
comparison  fearlessly  made.  Science  would  simply 
perform  the  office,  in  this  instance,  which  information 
gathered  from  other  parts  of  Scripture  is  unhesitat- 
ingly allowed  to  do  in  regard  to  those  genealogies 
previously  examined. 

And  it  may  be  worth  while  noting  here  that  a 
single  particular  in  w^hich  a  comparison  may  be 
instituted  between  the  primeval  history  of  man  and 
Gen.  v.,  suggests  especial  caution  before  affirming  the 
absolute  completeness  of  the  latter.  The  letter  of 
the  genealogical  record  (v.  3)  if  we  were  dependent 
on  it  alone,  might  naturally  lead  us  to  infer  that  Seth 
was  Adam's  first  child.  But  we  know  from  chapter 
iv.  that  he  had  already  had  two  sons,  Cain  and  Abel, 
and  from  iv.  17  that  he  must  have  had  a  daughter, 
and  from  iv.  14  that  he  had  probably  had  several  sons 


llic  Bihiual  Sclirnn 


457 


and  dau,Q;hters,  whose  families  had  swollen  to  a  con- 
siderahle  miiiiher  before  Adam's  one  hundred  and 
thirtieth  \ear,  in  which  Seth  was  horn.  Yet  of  all 
this   the  genealogy  gives  us  no   inkling. 

2.  Is  there  not,  however,  a  peculiarity  in  the  con- 
struction of  these  genealogies  which  forbids  our  ap- 
plying to  them  an  inference  drawn  from  others  not 
so  constructed?  The  fact  that  each  member  of  the 
series  is  said  to  have  begotten  the  one  next  succeed- 
ing, is,  in  the  light  of  the  wide  use  of  this  term  which 
we  have  discovered  in  other  cases,  no  evidence  of  itself 
that  links  have  not  been  omitted.  But  do  not  the 
chronological  statements  introduced  into  these  gene- 
alogies oblige  us  to  regard  them  as  necessarily  contin- 
uous? Why  should  the  author  be  so  particular  to 
state,  in  every  case,  with  unfailing  regularity,  the  age 
of  each  patriarch  at  the  birth  of  his  son,  unless  it 
was  his  design  thus  to  construct  a  chronology  of  this 
entire  period,  and  to  afford  his  readers  the  necessary 
elements  for  a  computation  of  the  interval  from  the 
creation  to  the  deluge  and  from  the  deluge  to  Abra- 
ham? And  \i  this  was  his  design,  he  must  of  course 
have  aimed  to  make  his  list  complete.  The  omission 
of  even  a  single  name  would  create  an  error. 

But  are  we  really  justified  in  supposing  that  the 
author  of  these  genealogies  entertained  such  a  pur- 
pose i*  It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  he  never  puts  them 
to  such  a  use  himself.  He  nowhere  sums  these  num- 
bers, nor  suggests  their  summation.  No  chronological 
statement  is  deduced  from  these  genealogies,  either  bv 


458  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

him  or  by  any  inspired  writer.     There  is  no  compu- 
tation anywhere  in  Scripture  of  the  time  that  elapsed 
from  the  creation  or  from  the  deluge,  as  there  is  from 
the  descent  into  Egypt  to  the  Exodus   (Ex.  xii.  40), 
or  from  the  Exodus  to  the  building  of  the  temple  (i 
Kings  vi.   i).     And  if  the  numbers  in  these  genealo- 
gies  are    for   the   sake   of   constructing   a   chronology, 
why  are  numbers  introduced  which  have  no  possible 
relation  to  such  a  purpose?     Why  are  we  told  how 
long  each  patriarch  lived  after  the  birth  of  his  son, 
and  what  was  the  entire  length  of   his  life?     These 
numbers   are   given  with   the   same   regularity   as   the 
age  of  each  at  the  birth  of  his  son;  and  they  are  of 
no    use    in    making    up    a    chronology    of    the   period. 
They    merely    afford    us    a    conspectus    of    individual 
lives.     And    for    this    reason    doubtless    they    are    re- 
corded.    They  exhibit  in  these  selected  examples  the 
original    term   of    human    life.      They   show   what   it 
was  in   the  ages  before  the  Flood.     They  show  how 
it  was  afterwards  gradually  narrowed  down.     But  in 
order  to  this  it  was  not  necessary  that  every  individ- 
ual should  be  named  in  the  line  from  Adam  to  Noah 
and  from  Noah  to  Abraham,  nor  anything  approach- 
ing  it.      A  series   of  specimen  lives,   with   the   appro- 
priate  numbers   attached,   was   all   that   was   required. 
And,  so  far  as  appears,  this  is  all  that  has  been  fur- 
nished  us.      And    if   this   be   the   case,   the   notion    of 
basing   a  chronological   computation    upon   these  gene- 
alogies is  a  fundamental  mistake.     It  is  putting  them 
to  a  purpose  that  they  were  not  designed  to  subserve. 


The  Biblical  Srhcnie  459 

and  to  which  from  the  method  of  their  construction 
they  are  not  adapted.  When  it  is  said,  for  example, 
that  '*  Enosh  lived  ninetj^  years  and  begat  Kenan," 
the  well-established  usage  of  the  word  *'  begat " 
makes  this  statement  equally  true  and  equally  accord- 
ant with  analogy,  whether  Kenan  was  an  immediate 
or  a  remote  descendant  of  Enosh;  whether  Kenan 
was  himself  born,  when  Enosh  was  ninety  years  of 
age  or  one  was  born  from  whom  Kenan  sprang. 
These  genealogies  may  yield  us  the  minimum  length 
of  time  that  it  is  possible  to  accept  for  the  period 
that  they  cover;  but  they  can  make  no  account  of  the 
duration  represented  by  the  names  that  have  been 
dropped  from  the  register,  as  needless  for  the  author's 
particular  purpose. 

3.  The  abode  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  Egypt 
affords  for  our  present  purpose  the  best  Scripture  par- 
allel to  the  periods  now  under  consideration.  The 
greater  part  of  this  term  of  430  years  is  left  blank  in 
the  sacred  history.  A  few  incidents  are  mentioned  at 
the  beginning  connected  with  the  descent  of  Jacob 
and  his  family  into  Egypt  and  their  settlement  there. 
And  at  its  close  mention  is  made  of  some  incidents  in 
the  life  of  Moses  and  the  events  leading  to  the  Exo- 
dus. But  with  these  exceptions  no  account  is  given 
of  this  long  period.  The  interval  is  only  bridged  by 
a  genealogy  extending  from  Levi  to  Moses  and  Aaron 
and  their  contemporaries  among  their  immediate  rel- 
atives (Ex.  vi.  16-26).  This  genealogy  records  the 
length  of  each  man's  life  in  the  principal  line  of  de- 


460  Origifi  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

scent,  viz.,  Levi  (ver.  16),  Kohath  (ver.  18),  Am- 
ram  (ver.  20).  The  correspondence  in  the  points 
just  indicated  with  the  genealogies  of  Gen.  v.  and  xi., 
and  the  periods  which  thej^  cover,  is  certainly  remark- 
able. And  as  they  proceeded  from  the  same  pen,  we 
may  fairly  infer  from  the  similarity  of  construction  a 
similarity  of  design.  Now  it  has  been  show^n  already 
that  the  genealogy  from  Levi  to  Moses  cannot  have 
recorded  all  the  links  in  that  line  of  descent,  and  that 
it  could  not,  therefore,  have  been  intended  to  be  used 
as  a  basis  of  chronological  computation.  This  is  ren- 
dered absolutely  certain  by  the  explicit  statement  in 
Ex.  xii.  40.  It  further  appears  from  the  fact  that 
the  numbers  given  in  this  genealogy  exhibit  the 
longevity  of  the  patriarchs  named,  but  cannot  be  so 
concatenated  as  to  sum  up  the  entire  period ;  thus 
suggesting  the  inference  that  the  numbers  in  the  other 
genealogies,  with  which  we  are  now  concerned,  were 
given  with  a  like  design,  and  not  with  the  view  of 
enabling  the  reader  to  construct  the  chronology. 

4.  In  so  far  as  a  valid  argument  can  be  drawn  from 
the  civilization  of  Egypt,  its  monuments  and  records, 
to  show  that  the  interval  between  the  deluge  and  the 
call  of  Abraham  must  have  been  greater  than  that 
yielded  by  the  genealogy  in  Gen.  xi.,  the  argument  is 
equally  valid  against  the  assumption  that  this  genealogy 
was  intended  to  supply  the  elements  for  a  chronolog- 
ical computation.  For  altogether  apart  from  his  in- 
spiration Moses  could  not  have  made  a  mistake  here. 
He  was  brought  up  at  the  court  of  Pharaoh,  and  was 


The  Biblical  ScJicnic  461 

learned  in  all  the  \\  isdom  of  the  Ep:3'ptians,  of  which 
his  legislation  and   the  marvellous  table  of  the  affini- 
ties of  nations  in  Gen.  x.,  at  once  the  admiration  and 
the  despair  of  ethnologists,  furnish  independent  proof. 
He  lived  in  the  glorious  period  of  the  great  Egyptian 
monarchy.     Its  monuments  were  then  in  their  fresh- 
ness and  completeness.     None  of  the  irreparable  dam- 
age,   which    time    and    ruthless    barbarism    have   since 
wrought,   had   been  suffered   then.     The   fragmentary 
records,  which  scholars  are  now  laboriously  struggling 
to   unravel    and    combine,    with    their   numerous    gaps 
and  hopeless  obscurities,  were  then   in   their  integrity 
and  well   understood.      Egypt's  claim  to   a  hoary  an- 
tiquity w\as   far  better  known   to   Closes,   and  he  was 
in  a  position   to  gain  a  far  more  intelligent  compre- 
hension of  it  than  is  possible  at  present;  for  exuberant 
materials   were   ready  at   his   hand,    of  which   only  a 
scanty  and  disordered  remnant  now  survives.    If,  then, 
Egyptian  antiquity  contradicts  the  current  chronology, 
it  simply  show^s  that  this  chronology  is  based  upon  an 
unfounded  assumption.    It  rests  upon  a  fundamentally 
mistaken   interpretation   of   the   ante-Abrahamic   gene- 
alogy, and  assigns  a  meaning  to  it  which  Moses  could 
never  have  intended  that  it  should  have. 

As  is  well  known,  the  texts  of  the  Septuagint  and 
of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  vary  systematically  from 
the  Hebrew  in  both  the  genealogies  of  Gen.  v.  and 
xi.  According  to  the  chronologies  based  on  these 
texts  respectively,  the  interval  between  the  Flood  and 
the  birth  of  Abraham  was  292    (Hebrew),  942    (Sa- 


462  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

maritan),  or  11 72  years  (Septuagint).  Some  have 
been  disposed  in  this  state  of  the  case  to  adopt  the 
chronology  drawn  from  the  Septuagint,  as  affording 
here  the  needed  reh'ef.  But  the  superior  accuracy  of 
the  Hebrew  text  in  this  instance,  as  well  as  generally 
elsewhere,  can  be  incontrovertibly  established.  This 
resource,  then,  is  a  broken  reed.  It  might,  however,  be 
plausibly  imagined,  and  has  in  fact  been  maintained, 
that  these  changes  were  made  by  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lators or  others  for  the  sake  of  accommodating  the 
Mosaic  narrative  to  the  imperative  demands  of  the 
accepted  Eg3'ptian  antiquity.  But  if  this  be  so,  it  is 
only  a  further  confirmation  of  the  argument  already 
urged,  that  the  ante-Abrahamic  genealogy  cannot  have 
been  intended  by  Moses  as  a  basis  of  chronological 
computation.  He  knew  as  much  of  the  age  of  Egypt 
as  the  Septuagint  translators  or  any  in  their  day.  And 
if  so  brief  a  term  as  this  genealogy  yields,  was  inad- 
missable  in  their  judgment,  and  they  felt  constrained 
to  enlarge  it  by  the  addition  of  nearly  nine  centuries, 
is  it  not  clear  that  Moses  never  could  have  intended 
that  the  genealogy  should  be  so  interpreted? 

Furthermore,  it  seems  to  me  worthy  of  considera- 
tion whether  the  original  intent  with  which  these 
textual  changes  were  made,  was  after  all  a  chrono- 
logical one.  The  principle  by  which  they  are  obvi- 
ously and  uniformly  governed,  is  rather  suggestive  of 
a  disposition  to  make  a  more  symmetrical  division  of 
individual    lives    than    to    protract    the    entire    period. 


The  Biblical  Scheme  4^3 

The  effect  ol  tliese  changes  upon  tlie  chronoloj^^y  may 
have  heen  altoojether  an  afterthou^^ht. 

Thus  in  the  Hebrew  text  of  Gen.  v.  the  ages  of 
different  patriarchs  at  the  birth  of  the  son  named  are 
quite  irregular,  and  vary  from  sixty-five  to  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-seven.  But  the  versions  seek  to 
bring  them  into  closer  conformity,  and  to  introduce 
something  like  a  regular  gradation.  The  Septuagint 
proceeds  on  the  assumption  that  patriarchs  of  such 
enormous  longevity  should  be  nearly  two  centuries 
old  at  the  birth  of  their  son.  Accordingly,  when,  in 
the  Hebrew,  they  fall  much  belov/  this  standard,  one 
hundred  years  are  added  to  the  number  preceding  the 
birth  of  the  son  and  the  same  amount  deducted  from 
the  number  following  his  birth;  the  total  length  of 
each  life  is  thus  preserved  without  change,  the  pro- 
portion of  its  different  parts  alone  being  altered.  The 
Samaritan,  on  the  other  hand,  assumes  a  gradual 
diminution  in  the  ages  of  successive  patriarchs  prior 
to  the  birth  of  their  son,  none  rising  to  a  centuiy 
after  the  first  two.  When,  therefore,  the  num.ber  in 
the  Hebrew  text  exceeds  one  hundred,  one  hundred 
is  deducted  and  the  same  amount  added  to  the  years 
after  the  son  was  born.  In  the  case  of  Lamech  the 
reduction  is  greater  still,  in  order  to  effect  the  neces- 
sary diminution.  Accordingly  the  years  assigned  to 
the  several  antediluvian  patriarchs  before  the  birth  of 
their  son  in  these  several  texts  is  as  follows: — 


464  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 


Hebrew. 

Septuagint. 

Samaritan. 

Adam 

130 

230 

130 

Seth 

105 

205 

105 

Enosh 

90 

190 

90 

Kenan 

70 

170 

70 

Mahalalel 

65 

165 

65 

Jared 

162 

162 

62 

Enoch 

65 

r'^^ 

65 

Methuselah 

187 

(167' 
I187 

67 

Lamech 

182 

188 

53 

Noah 

600 

600 

600 

A  simple  glance  at  these  numbers  is  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  Hebrew  is  the  original,  from  which 
the  others  diverge  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  ac- 
cording to  the  principle  which  they  have  severally 
adopted.  It  likewise  creates  a  strong  presumption 
that  the  object  contemplated  in  these  changes  was  to 
make  the  lives  more  S5^mmetrical,  rather  than  to  effect 
an  alteration  in  the  chronology. 

.5.  The  structure  of  the  genealogies  in  Gen.  v. 
and  xi.  also  favors  the  belief  that  they  do  not  register 
all  the  names  in  these  respective  lines  of  descent. 
Their  regularity  seems  to  indicate  intentional  arrange- 
ment. Each  genealogy  includes  ten  names,  Noah  be- 
ing the  tenth  from  Adam,  and  Terah  the  tenth  from 
Noah.  And  each  ends  with  a  father  having  three 
sons,  as  is  likewise  the  case  with  the  Cainite  geneal- 
ogy (iv.  17-22).  The  Sethite  genealogy  (chap,  v.) 
culminates  in  its  seventh  m.ember,  Enoch,  who  ''  walked 
whh  God,  and  he  w^as  not,  for  God  took  him."  The 
Cainite  genealogy  also  culminates  in  its  seventh  mem- 
ber, Lamech,  with  his  polygamy,  bloody  revenge,  and 


The  Biblical  Scheme  465 

boastful  arro2;ance.  The  y;enealogy  descending  from 
Shem  divides  evenly  at  its  fifth  member,  Peleg;  and 
'  in  his  days  was  the  earth  divided,'  Now  as  the  ad- 
justment of  the  genealogy  in  Matt.  i.  into  three  peri- 
ods of  fourteen  generations  each  is  brought  about  by 
dropping  the  requisite  number  of  names,  it  seems  in 
the  highest  degree  probable  that  the  symmetry  of  these 
primitive  genealogies  is  artificial  rather  than  natural. 
It  is  much  more  likely  that  this  definite  number  of 
names  fitting  into  a  regular  scheme  has  been  selected 
as  sufficiently  representing  the  periods  to  which  they 
belong,  than  that  all  these  striking  numerical  coinci- 
dences should  have  happened  to  occur  in  these  suc- 
cessive instances. 

It  may  further  be  added  that  if  the  genealogy  in 
chap.  xi.  is  complete,  Peleg,  who  marks  the  entrance 
of  a  new  period,  died  while  all  his  ancestors  from 
Noah  onward  were  still  living.  Indeed  Shem,  Ar- 
phaxad,  Selah,  and  Eber  must  all  have  outlived  not 
only  Peleg,  but  all  the  generations  following  as  far  as 
and  including  Terah.  The  whole  impression  of  the 
narrative  in  Abraham's  days  is  that  the  Flood  was  an 
event  long  since  past,  and  that  the  actors  in  it  had 
passed  away  ages  before.  And  yet  if  a  chronology  is 
to  be  constructed  out  of  this  genealogy,  Noah  was 
for  fift3"-eight  3-ears  the  contemporary  of  Abraham, 
and  Shem  actually  survived  him  thirty-five  years, 
provided  xi.  26  is  to  be  taken  in  its  natural  sense, 
that  Abraham  was  born  in  Terah's  seventieth  year. 
This  conclusion  is  well-nigh  incredible.     The  calcula- 


466  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

tion  which  leads  to  such  a  result,  must  proceed  upon 
a  wrong  assumption. 

On  these  various  grounds  we  conclude  that  the 
Scriptures  furnish  no  data  for  a  chronological  com- 
putation prior  to  the  life  of  Abraham;  and  that  the 
Mosaic  records  do  not  fix  and  w^re  not  intended  to 
fix  the  precise  date  either  of  the  Flood  or  of  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world. 

THE   TABLE    OF    NATIONS 

The  Biblical  account  of  the  creation  and  dispersion 
of  the  human  race  is  remarkable  for  its  statements 
that  there  were  two  dispersals  from  common  centers, 
the  second  being  that  w^hich  took  place  after  the  re- 
corded deluge,  which,  according  to  the  sacred  story, 
had  destroyed  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  except 
one  family.  The  Bible  does  not  concern  itself,  to  any 
great  extent,  with,  the  first  dispersal;  but  in  the  table 
of  nations  found  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  there 
is  a  series  of  bold  and  remarkable  statements  concern- 
ing the  dispersion  of  the  tribes  and  peoples  which  in 
due  time  occupied  all  of  the  then  known  world.  This 
dispersion  is  attributed  to  misunderstandings  and  con- 
flicts originating  in  efforts  to  build  a  city  and  a  tower 
in  Babylonia  that  should  make  them  a  name  and  pre- 
vent their  being  "  scattered  abroad  upon  the  face  of 
the  whole  earth."     Like  all  subsequent  political  com- 


The  Biblical  Scheme  4'^ 7 

binations,  this  one  broke  into  pieces,  and  the  warrintj; 
elements  dispersed  to  the  four  quarters  of  the-  globe. 
"  The  table  of  nations  "  whicli  follows  is  recognized 
by  all  as  a  document  of  great  antiquity.^ 

It  is  true  that  some  of  the  higher  critics,  on  purely 
a  priori  grounds,  have  assigned  it  to  a  late  date  in 
Jewish  history.  But  the  document  contains  indubit- 
able marks  fixing  its  date  as  anterior  to  that  of  Abra- 
ham (about  1700  B.C.).  Sodom  and  Ciomorrah  are 
referred  to  as  still  existing,  though  they  were  de- 
stroyed in  Abraham's  time.  Tyre  is  not  mentioned; 
though,  after  the  time  of  David,  it  was  a  more  im- 
portant city  than  Sidon,  the  other  Phcrnician  city 
which  is  mentioned.  Neither  is  Persia  mentioned, 
though  the  older  kingdom  which  preceded  it,  Elam, 
finds  a  prominent  place.  Again,  Ninevah  (ver.  11, 
12)  appears  as  one  of  four  distinct  settlements  which 
from  the  time  of  Sennacherib  (about  700  B.C.)  were 
united  as  one  under  that  common  name.  Various 
other  names,  also,  which  appear  in  later  Jewish  his- 
tory, are  conspicuous  for  their  absence. 

Of  special  interest  is  the  group  of  nations  said  to 
be  descended  from  Japheth,  namely,  Gomer,  Magog, 
Madai,  Javan,  Tubal,  Mesheck,  and  Tiras,  the  ma- 
jority of  which  have  been  identified  as  belonging  to 
the  great  Aryan-speaking  races.     Gomer  represents  a 


468  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

group  of  peoples  that  finally  settled  in  Cappadocia. 
Madai  is  Media.  Javan  represents  the  lonians.  Tubal 
and  Mesheck  are  tribes  referred  to  in  Assyrian  in- 
scriptions as  located  in  Central  Asia  Minor.  Magog 
represents  a  collective  series  of  peoples  coming  from 
the  north,  corresponding  to  the  Scythians.  In  the 
minor  divisions  we  find  among  the  descendants  of 
Gomer  various  tribes  which  are  known  to  have  dwelt 
in  Armenia.  Of  the  descendants  of  Javan  we  have 
tribes  dwelling  in  Greece,  various  islands  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  Tarshish,  ordinarily  believed  to  be  the 
Tartessus  of  Spain. 

The  sons  of  Ham  are  distributed  in  their  proper 
place  in  Ethiopia,  Egj^pt,  and  Libya,  with  representa- 
tives, also,  in  Arabia  and  Canaan,  which  accords  with 
the  facts  as  brought  out  by  later  investigations.  The 
descendants  of  Shem  are  correctly  represented  as  occu- 
pying Elam,  Syria,  and  Assyria,  the  centers  of  Se- 
mitic civilization. 

The  obscurities  connected  with  this  table  need  not 
concern  us,  since  we  have  no  other  sufficient  historical 
evidence  with  which  to  compare  the  entire  table. 
But,  so  far  as  comparison  is  possible,  its  correctness  is 
established  beyond  all  reasonable  question.  It  is  suf- 
ficient for  our  present  purpose,  therefore,  to  call  at- 
tention  again  to   the  fact  that  this  second   dispersion 


The  Biblical  Scheme  469 

of  the  human  race  indicated  in  the  Bible  proceeds 
from  the  region  in  Central  Asia  already  indefinitely 
outlined  by  the  evidence  given  in  our  eleventh  chap- 
ter. From  the  mountains  of  Ararat  (Armenia)  the 
descendants  of  Noah  would  naturally  spread  in  all 
directions,  especially,  under  the  climatic  conditions 
then  existing,  eastward  towards  the  Caspian  Sea  and 
the  fertile  irrigated  belt  which  we  have  described  as 
extending  all  around  the  southern  border  of  the  Aral- 
Caspian  basin,  into  which  Alexander  the  Great  led 
his  conquering  armies. 

In  explanation  of  the  climatic  conditions  character- 
izing that  period  and  favoring  the  support  of  a  much 
larger  population  in  that  region  at  that  time  than 
now,  it  will  be  necessary  to  summarize  briefly  the  evi- 
dence which  I  have  elsewhere  presented  in  detail, 
showing  that  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch  there 
was  a  continental  depression  of  land  in  all  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  Eastern  Hemisphere  corresponding  to 
that  which  produced  the  Champlain  epoch  of  North 
Ame 


rica 


As  already  detailed,  the  Glacial  epoch  in  North 
America  closed  with  a  depression  of  land  amounting 
to  six  hundred  feet  at  Montreal,  and  one  thousand 
feet  farther  north  ;  so  that,  for  a  time,  a  great  inland 
sea  covered  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Champlain  valleys. 


The  Biblical  Scheme  47 1 

In  Europe,  also,  there  is  indubitable  evidence  that,  in 
post-glacial  time,  the  Scandinavian  peninsula  was  de- 
pressed to  the  extent  of  one  thousand  feet  in  its  cen- 
tral  and   northern  portions.     The  evidence  is  equally 
plain   in   Northern   and   Central  Asia  that   there  was 
a  much  larger  area,  including  the  Aral-Caspian  basin, 
which  was  depressed  at  the  same  period  to  the  extent 
of  seven   hundred  feet;  and,  as  I   believe,  in  Central 
Asia  to   the  extent  of   two   thousand   feet;  while  the 
enclosed  basins,  such  as  we  find  in  the  valley  of  the 
Jordan  and  in  that  of  the  Tarim  River,  between  the 
Tian    Shan    and    the   Kuenlun   mountains,   w^re,    like 
that  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  basin  in  America,  filled 
with  water  to  a  depth  of  one  thousand  feet  or  more. 
The   most   salient   evidences   of   this   are,    first,   the 
existence  in  Lake  Baikal,  and  in  the  Caspian  Sea,  and 
formerly  in  the  Aral   Sea,  of  a  species  of  seal  which 
are  now  found  no  nearer  than  the  Arctic  Ocean,  two 
thousand  miles  away.     Lake  Baikal  is  more  than  fif- 
teen  hundred  feet  above  the  sea^   and  the  depression 
it  fills  is  of  late  geological  age.^°     The  only  satisfac- 
tory explanation  of  the  existence  of  arctic  seals  in  this 
lake  is  that,  in  very  recent  geological  times,  there  was 
a    depression   of   Northern    Siberia   and    of   the   Aral- 
Caspian  basin  amounting  to  more  than  one  thousand 
five  hundred    feet,   thus   facilitating  the   dispersion   of 


472  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

this  species  of  seal  to  the  elevated  and  distant  bodies 
of  water  in  which  they  are  now  found;  and  that,  in 
still  more  recent  times,  a  gradual  reelevation  of  the 
land,  cutting  off  direct  connection  with  the  ocean,  left 
these  animals  corralled  in  the  isolated  bodies  of  water 
where  they  are  now  found,  at  the  northern  base  of 
the  extensive  mountain  system  which  runs  through 
Central  Asia. 

Still  more  definite  evidence  of  this  post-glacial  de- 
pression I  m3^self  discovered  at  Trebizond,^^  on  the 
south  shore  of  the  Black  Sea,  where  a  very  distinct 
shore  line  deposit  of  gravel  and  sand  extends  for  a 
considerable  distance  along  the  northern  face  of  the 
precipitous  volcanic  cliffs  which  rise  back  of  the  city. 
This  shore  line,  or  gravel  terrace,  is  evidently  of  very 
recent  geological  age,  and  is  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  above  the  sea.  Corresponding  shore  lines  were, 
soon  after,  reported  by  Professor  Charles  R.  Keyes 
at  Soudak,  on  the  south  shore  of  the  Crimea,  nearly 
opposite  Trebizond,  and  by  Mr.  Charles  Tracy  near 
Samsun,  one  hundred  miles  farther  west,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Black  Sea;  while  at  Baku,  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Caspian  Sea,  Professor  William  M.  Davis  de- 
scribes corresponding  Post-Tertiary  shore  lines  six 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea.^-  With  the  exception  of 
the    Ural    Mountains,    the    area    including    Northern 


The  Biblical  Scheme  473 

Germany,  all  Russia,  the  Aral-Caspian  basin,  and  all 
Central  and  Western  Siberia  is  less  than  six  hundred 
feet  nbove  the  sea;  so  that  a  depression  such  as  I  had 
witness  of  when  I  stood  upon  the  shore  line  at  Treb- 
izond  would  have  caused  all  this  region  to  have  been 
submerged  to  a  considerable  depth  below  sea  level. 
Such  a  submergence  is  beyond  reasonable  doubt. 

The  great  accumulation  of  water  in  the  Tarim  ba- 
sin and  in  the  Jordan  Valley  may  have  been  partly 
due  to  an  irruption  of  oceanic^  water  from  this  de- 
pressed area ;  for  the  evidence  of  the  depression  of 
which  we  speak  is  found  all  along  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  in  Egypt.  But  there  the 
direct  evidence  does  not  indicate  a  depression  of  more 
than  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  feet.  This,  how- 
ever, would  be  sufficient  to  carry  the  water  over  the 
valley  of  Esdraelon  into  the  Jordan  Valley.  In  the 
depression  occupied  by  the  Jordan  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence that  it  was  filled  by  water  to  the  height  of  one 
thousand  four  hundred  feet  above  the  present  level 
of  the  Dead  Sea;  while  in  the  Tarim  basin  there  is 
evidence  of  a  rise  of  water  corresponding  to  that  in 
the  Dead  Sea  basin.  Rut  in  both  cases  the  enlarge- 
ment of  these  lakes  may  be  fully  accounted  for,  as  is 
that  in  the  Great  Salt  Lake  basin  in  the  United 
States,  by  the  climatic  conditions  of  the  Glacial  epoch, 


474  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

which  was  a  period  of  greatly  increased   precipitation 
and  of  diminished  evaporation. 

Without  going  further  into  details  concerning  the 
causes  in  operation,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  period  fol- 
lowing the  Biblical  deluge  (corresponding,  as  we  believe, 
to  the  early  post-glacial  period)  was  one  in  which  the 
climate  of  all  Western  and  Central  Asia  was  greatly 
ameliorated  by  the  presence  of  an  abnormal  amount  of 
moisture  in  the  atmosphere,  making  the  highlands  of 
Armenia  and  of  Persia  and  of  all  Central  Asia  far  more 
attractive  to  population  than  they  are  at  the  present 
time.  Into  these  conditions  the  immediate  descendants 
of  Noah  entered,  and  had  opportunity  to  flourish 
amid  them  for  those  indefinite  periods  which  our 
chronology  permits.  If,  as  we  suppose,  the  Biblical 
deluge  w^as  coincident  with  this  extension  of  oceanic 
water  to  the  base  of  the  mountains  of  Central  Asia, 
and  the  foregoing  enlargement  of  Lob  Nor  in  the 
Tarim  basin  and  of  the  Dea  Sea  in  the  valley  of  the 
Jordan,  we  are  permitted  to  believe  in  a  gradual  re- 
tirement of  the  waters  through  the  slow  reelevation 
of  the  land  which  brought  about  conditions  closely 
parallel  to  those  described  in  the  eleventh  chapter, 
though  resulting  from  an  opposite  cause.  There  we 
have  shown  that  the  coming  on  of  glacial  conditions, 
while  it  closed  access  to  Northern  Europe  by  the  act- 


The  Biblical  Scheme  475 

ual  invasion  of  glacial  ice,  greatly  extended  the  irri- 
gated belt  at  the  base  of  the  niountaifis  of  Central 
Asia  by  reason  of  the  increased  flow  of  water  in  the 
innumerable  streams  fed  by  the  enlarged  glaciers 
which  crept  down  their  sides  to  the  7,000-foot  line. 

In  corresponding  order  the  gradual  withdrawal  of 
the  waters  as  the  land  of  Central  Asia  underwent  a 
reelevation  would  open  up  this  fertile  belt  at  the  base 
of  the  mountains  of  Central  Asia  for  the  occupation 
of  plants,  animals,  and  man;  while  the  plains  of  Rus- 
sia and  Northern  Europe  were  still  submerged.  But 
when  the  glaciers  of  the  mountains  In  Asia  had  re- 
treated to  approximately  their  present  position,  and 
the  increased  evaporation  had  reduced  the  size  of  the 
lakes  in  the  Jordan  and  Tarim  basins,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  water  had  disappeared  from  all  the  sub- 
merged areas  spoken  of,  the  desiccation  of  these 
Asiatic  centers  followed,  and  the  overcrowded  popu- 
lation found  happv  relief  in  emigration  to  the  freshly 
uncovered  plains  of  Northern  Europe.  The  evidences 
of  this  desiccation  of  Asia  are  abundant;  w^hlle,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  distribution  of  languages,  races,  and 
religions,  as  well  as  of  both  wild  and  domesticated 
plants  and  animals,  clearly  points  to  this  area  In  Cen- 
tral Asia  as  the  original  center  from  which  they  have 
set  out  to  compass  the  world.     It  Is  no  slight  confirm- 


47^  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ation  both  of  this  theory  and  of  sacred  history,  that 
the  oldest  ethnological  table  in  the  world,  that  of  the 
tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  the  account  in  the 
earliest  chapters  of  Genesis,  lead  us  back  to  the  same 
center  for  the  origin  and  dispersion  of  the  human  race. 


Su/n//i(iry   (iinl   Co/iclnsio/i  477 


CHAPTl-R    XV^ 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

Nothing  can  better  illustrate  the  solidarity  of  the 
universe  and  the  interdependence  of  all  sciences  than 
the  variety  of  sources  of  information  to  which  we  are 
compelled  to  go  to  obtain  an  answer  in  any  degree 
satisfactory  to  the  questions,  What  is  the  origin,  and 
what  the  antiquity,  of  the  human  race?  Nor  can 
anything  bring  out  into  stronger  light  the  immense 
distance  which  separates  the  intellectual  capacities  of 
man  from  those  of  the  rest  of  the  animal  creation. 
That  the  human  mind  should  care  to  ask  the  ques- 
tions concerning  man's  origin  and  antiquity  betokens 
the  possession  of  an  exalted  nature.  That  man  should 
seek  and  be  able  to  find  answers  to  these  questions 
from  so  many  sources  and  so  many  r^lms  of  nature, 
betokens  a  rational  faculty  of  which  we  have  but  the 
dimmest  intimations  even  in  the  highest  of  the  ani- 
mals that  are  below  him.  We  may  profitably  conclude 
our  discussion  of  the  subject  by  taking  a  rapid  and 
comprehensive  glance  at  the  whole  field  of  evidence 
traversed  and  of  the  conclusions  which  with  more  or 
less  confidence  we  are  permitted  to  draw. 


478  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

In   the   earlier   editions  of    his   "  Principles   of   Ge- 
ology"    Sir    Charles    Lyell    assumed    that    geological 
time    was    practically     unlimited,    and    attempted    to 
prove  that  the  Cambrian   deposits,  containing  exquis- 
itely   formed    trilobites,    were    240,000,000  years  old. 
From   which  it   was  justly   inferable   that   the   begin- 
nings of  geological   history   as   recorded   in    the    rocks 
were  as  far  distant  as  500,000,000  years.    When  Dar- 
win   first    promulgated    his    theory-    of    the    origin    of 
species,    he    followed    the    fashion    of    the    times    (for 
science   as   well    as   everything   else    has    its    fashion), 
and  assumed  that  there  were  practically  no  limitations 
to  the  time  during  which  natural   selection  might  be 
supposed  to  have  operated.     Speaking  of  the  time  re- 
quired for  the  extensive  erosion  that  had  removed  the 
Wealden    deposits   in    England,    \\hich   he   called    "  a 
mere  trifle  of  geological  time,"  he  estimated  it,  as  we 
have   said,   at   306,562,400  years.     If  this  is   a   trifle, 
you  are  left  to  •form  your  opinion  as  to  what  the  to- 
tal   sum    would    be.     In    the    second    edition    of    the 
"  Origin  of   Species  "   Darwin  confesses  that  this  was 
a  rash  statement,  while  in  later  editions  it  was  quietly 
withdrawn.    Rut  it  illustrates  in  a  forcible  manner  the 
change   of   base   which    Darwinian    evolutionists   have 
been   compelled   to   make,    and    the    quiet    manner   in 
which   they  have  made  it.     It   is  instructive,   also,  to 


Summary  and  Cojicliision  479 

observe,  as  we  have  seen,  that  out  of  the  loins  of  the 
eider  Darwin  there  has  sprung  a  younger  Darwin 
whose  inherited  genius  has  taken  the  turn  of  mathe- 
matics rather  tlian  of  natural  history,  and  has  led 
him  to  some  most  startling  conclusions,  concerning 
the  limits  of  time  within  which  natural  selection  has 
been  permitted  to  work;  for,  according  to  his  calcu- 
lations, g-eological  history  must  find  its  beginnings 
within  the  limit  certainly  of  100,000,000,  and  prob- 
ably of  50,000,000,  years.  At  the  same  time  calcula- 
tions made  from  the  rate  of  the  erosion  of  the  land 
surfaces  and  of  the  deposition  of  sedimentary  strata, 
have  led  to  a  limitation  of  geological  time.  For  from 
such  data  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  ^  assigns  to  the  oldest 
sedimentary  rocks  aji  age  of  only  28,000,000  years; 
while  Charles  D.  Walcott,  for  many  years  the  di- 
rector of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  is  a  lit- 
tle more  accurate,  assigning  to  the  oldest  fossiliferous 
sedimentary  strata  an  age  of  only  27,650,000  years: 
significantly  adding,  "  Geological  time  is  of  great  but 
not  indefinite  duration.  ...  It  can  be  measured  by 
tens  of  millions,  but  not  by  single  millions  or  hundreds 
of  millions  of  years."  - 

Adopting  Dana's  distribution  of  geological  time  as 
in  the  ratio  of  12  for  the  Palaeozoic,  3  for  the  Meso- 
zoic,   I   for  the  Tertiary,  and  24,000,000  years  as  the 


480  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

absolute  amount,  we  should  have,  as  already  seen,  but 
a  million  and  a  half  of  years  left  since  the  beginning 
of  the  Tertiary  period  and  since  the  introduction  of 
the  class  of  animals  to  which  man  belongs;  namely, 
those  which  nurse  their  young,  and  whose  young  are 
born  fully  developed,  —  in  scientific  nomenclature  the 
Placental  Mammalia.  Multiplying  by  three  would 
give  only  4,500,000  j^ears  for  the  Tertiary  period. 

Coming  down  to  the  consideration  of  the  length  of 
Pleistocene,  or  Post-Tertiary,  time,  which  is  the  only 
geological  age  in  which  we  find  satisfactory  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  man,  there  is  ample  evidence  to 
show  that  relatively  it  was  not  more  than  one-fiftieth 
that  of  Tertiary  time.  With  that  estimate,  the  total 
length  of  the  Glacial  epoch  would  be  only  30,000 
years  if  we  give  24,000,000  years  as  the  age  of  the 
oldest  sedimentary  strata,  and  only  90,000  j^ears  if 
wc  allow  for  an  increase  of  threefold.  At  the  same 
time  many  lines  of  direct  evidence  from  the  recession 
of  waterfalls,  the  accumulation  of  sediment  in  lake 
bottoms,  the  short  continuance  of  glacial  lakes,  like 
that  which  covered  the  Red  River  Valley  of  the 
North  during  the  glacial  recession,  and  the  small 
enlargement  of  post-glacial  river  channels,  render  in- 
credible the  current  estimates  of  the  length  of  post- 
glacial  time.     Post-glacial  time  is  to  be  reckoned  by 


Surnnidry  and  Conclusion  481 

thousands  of  years,   rather  than  by   hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, or  even  tens  of  thousands. 

Inattention  to  the  actual  facts  and  lack  of  true 
scientific  imajjination  have  conspired  to  exagg;eratc 
beyond  all  reason  the  length  both  of  geological  time 
in  general,  and  of  post-glacial  time  in  particular  dur- 
ing which  man  has  been  an  inhabitant  of  the  earth. 
Recent  observations  have  demonstrated  that  geologic 
forces  are  immensely  more  active  than  they  were 
formerly  supposed  to  be,  and  that  there  have  been 
periods  of  rapid  advancement  when  everything  moved 
on  by  leaps  and  bounds.  It  now  appears  that  at  the 
present  rate  of  removal  of  the  soil  from  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  all  the  dn,'  land,  except  a  few  mountain 
chains,  would  be  carried  into  the  sea  within  a  few 
million  years.  At  the  present  rate  at  which  streams 
are  scouring  out  their  channels,  the  gorge  of  the 
Mississippi  from  St.  Louis  to  Minneapolis,  and  of 
the  Ohio  from  the  Falls  of  Louisville  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Allegheny,  would  be  worn  In  less  than 
a  million  of  years;  while  the  vast  canon  of  the  Colo- 
rado, three  hundred  miles  long  and  in  places  six 
thousand  feet  deep,  would  require  for  its  completion 
only  a  million  and  half  of  years,  if  we  allow  the 
stream  two  hiuidrcd  and  fifty  years  to  lower  its  chan- 
nel one  foot. 


482  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

Turning  to  the  continental  elevations  and  depres- 
sions of  land  which  liave  taken  place  since  the  Ter- 
tiarj^  period,  it  appears  that  at  the  rate  at  which 
the  coast  of  New  Jersey  is  known  to  have  been  sub- 
siding for  the  past  two  or  three  hundred  years,  namely 
three  feet  in  a  century,  it  would  in  30,000  years 
amount  to  as  much  as  the  total  post-glacial  subsidence 
in  British  America  and  Scandinavia.  But  there  is 
indubitable  evidence  that  the  rate  of  changes  of  level 
was  much  more  rapid  in  the  vicinity  of  the  center  of 
glacial  accumulation  than  anywhere  else,  and  this  both 
in  the  period  of  subsidence  during  glacial  times,  when 
the  movement  was  accelerated  by  the  weight  of  the 
ice,  and  during  the  reelevation,  when  this  weight  was 
suddenly  removed  by  the  melting  of  the  ice  and  the 
transfer  of  the  water  to  occupy  its  earlier  position  in 
the  bed  of  the  ocean. 

The  whole  question,  too,  of  the  possible  rate  of 
advancem.ent  in  the  variation  of  species  has  received 
new  light  since  Darw^in  first  promulgated  his  theory 
of  the  origin  of  species  through  natural  selection.  It 
is  now  seen  that  upon  changed  conditions  which  are 
perfectly  within  the  range  of  credibility  variations 
among  animal  species  of  12V2  per  cent  may  take  place 
in  a  single  generation ;  so  that  a  few  hundred  years,  it 
may  easily  be  conceived,  w^ould  suffice  for  the  produc- 


Sununary  and  Conclusion  483 

tion  of  chaiii^jes  sufficient  to  establish  specific  differ- 
ences betueen  the  descendants  of  a  common  ancestor. 
We  are  no  long^er  shut  up  to  the  conception  of  the 
infinitesimal  rate  of  variation  in  species  with  which 
Darwin  carried  on  his  speculations. 

In  reference  to  the  production  of  different  races  of 
mankind,  one  needs  but  make  a  simple  calculation  to 
see  how  easily  these  all  maj'^  have  been  brought  about 
in  two  or  three  thousand  years  through  the  simple 
operation   of    Danvin's   law  of   natural  selection. 

If  we  suppose  the  human  race  to  start  w^ith  a  single 
favored  pair  and  to  double  once  in  twenty-five  years 
(the  present  rate  in  Quebec),  there  would  be  at  the 
end  of  five  hundred  years  1,000,000  living  descend- 
ants from  this  single  pair.  If  they  should  go  on 
increasing  at  the  same  rate  another  five  hundred  years 
without  check,  there  would  be  500,000  million ;  or, 
if,  instead  of  taking  so  large  a  ratio,  we  assume  a 
ratio  of  increase  w^hich  would  double  the  population 
once  in  fifty  years,  we  should  then  have  our  1,000,000 
people  in  the  world  at  the  end  of  one  thousand  years, 
and  our  500,000  million  people  at  the  end  of  two 
thousand  years.  But  as  that  number  of  people  is 
about  300  times  more  than  can  be  found  in  the  world 
at  the  present  time  we  are  compelled  to  consider  the 
counteracting  agencies  which  secure  slower  growth. 


484  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  human  existence  the  whole 
world  was  before  the  race,  and  we  can  easily  imagine 
that  they  spread  out  in  quest  of  food  and  adventure, 
so  as  to  become  widely  dispersed  at  a  very  early  time, 
and  to  incur  the  liabilities  to  isolation  which  we  have 
considered  as  likely  to  lead  to  new  dialects  and  even 
to  totally  new  languages.  At  this  period  of  the  his- 
tory of  such  a  species,  the  colonists  would  also  be  sub- 
jected to  those  new  conditions  of  climate  and  modes 
of  life  which  would  rapidly  fix  the  racial  peculiarities. 

The  rapidity  with  which  these  adaptations  of  a 
race  to  its  new  conditions  may  proceed  has  already 
been  discussed  in  due  order.  But  a  brief  summary 
v/ill  not  be  out  of  place  at  this  point. 

The  changes  which  are  taking  place  in  any  body  of 
colonists  are  so  great  that  the  favored  variations  will 
be  selected  out  and  accumulated  w^ith  astonishing 
rapidity.  This  follows  from  the  first  law  of  natural 
selection.  But  when  the  constitutions  of  the  colonists 
have  become  adjusted  to  the  conditions,  the  race  will 
remain  permanent  so  long  as  the  conditions  remain 
unchanged.  Certainly  we  have  no  positive  grounds 
for  asserting  that  all  the  diversifications  of  race  and 
language  may  not  have  arisen  by  natural  processes  in 
the  course  of  a  very  few  tlioiisand  years,  and  we  have 
mucli   reason   in   the   nature  of  the  case   for  believing 


SumnKuy  and  Conclusion  485 

that  they  would  thus  arise  within  such  a  period;  for 
we  have  the  natural  tendency  of  the  human  race  to 
increase  in  geometrical  ratio,  coupled  with  the  natural 
limitations  of  the  earth  in  its  capacity  to  provide  for 
this  (leometrical  increase  of  population,  and  the  con- 
sequent enforced  colonization  of  man,  and  his  subjec- 
tion to  new  and  trying  conditions  of  life.  On  the 
one  hand,  he  was  forced  to  eke  out  a  precarious  exist- 
ence amid  the  arctic  rigors  of  the  north,  and  on  the 
other  to  contend  with  the  trying  heat  of  the  tropics. 
The  point,  however,  upon  which  our  evidence 
specially  hangs  is  that  relating  to  the  period  of  trans- 
ition between  the  Tertiar}^  and  the  Post-Tertian^ 
periods.  It  is  very  evident  that  the  early  and  middle 
portions  of  the  Tertiary  period  were  characterized  by 
a  great  diminution  of  lands  in  the  vicinity  of  the  north 
pole.  Northern  British  America,  Greenland,  Nova 
Zembla,  Spitzbergen,  were  much  depressed,  so  that  the 
warm  currents  of  water  from  the  Pacific,  and  probably 
the  Indian  and  the  Atlantic  oceans,  had  free  access  to 
what  are  nov/  the  icy  regions  of  the  north.  This  pro- 
duced, or  at  any  rate  was  accompanied  by.  a  mild  and 
equable  climate  in  which  there  flourished  over  all 
that  region  now  covered  with  arctic  snow  a  forest 
vegetation  closely  resembling-  the  present  vegetation 
of  Virginia   and   North   Carolina.      But,   as   the  Ter- 


486  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

tiary    period    approached    its    close,    there    occurred    a 
slow  but   gradual  uprising  of  the  northern   lands  on 
both    continents    until    the    northern    parts    of    North 
America  and  of  Europe  stood  two  or  three  thousand 
feet   higher  than   they  do  at  the  present  time.     The 
evidence  of  this  meets  us  on  every  hand  in  the  fiords 
of   NorAvay   and   Alaska,   in   the  submerged    channels 
that  stretch  out  from  the  mouths  of  almost  all  of  our 
rivers  to  the  margin  of  the  narrow,  submerged  shelf 
which   both   around   America   and   Europe   forms   the 
real  continental  border  of  the  deep  oceanic  basin,  and 
in  the  numerous  buried  channels  brought  to  light  by 
borings    all    over    the    northern    part    of    the    United 
States.      The    Hudson    River    in   late   Tertiary   times 
occupied  a  gorge  eight  hundred  feet  deeper  than  now, 
and  flowed  through  an  extensive  plain  which  extended 
out   one    hundred    miles   or   more    southeast    of   New 
York    Harbor,    and    in    this   plain    eroded    a   channel 
which   towards   its   mouth   was   from   fifteen    hundred 
to  two  thousand  feet  in  depth.     The  depths  likewise 
of  the  fiords  in  Norway  and  of  the  Saguenay  River 
in  the  eastern  part  of  North  America  tell  the  story 
of  the  great  amount  of  late  Tertiary  elevation  in  this 
region.      It   is    in    this   almost    universal    elevation   of 
lands   in    the   northern   part   of    Europe   and   America 
that  we  are  probably  to  find  the  cause  of  the  Glacial 


Summary  and  Conclusion  487 

epoch.  The  accumulations  of  snow  and  ice  charac- 
teristic of  that  period  point  to  some  such  terrestrial, 
rather  than  to  any  astronomical,  cause.  It  was  from 
the  mountains  of  Scandinavia  in  Europe  as  a  center, 
and  from  Labrador  and  the  Laurentian  highlands  in 
America,  that  those  vast  sheets  of  glacial  ice  crept 
out  on  either  continent  until  it  had  carried  debris 
from  the  central  area  to  a  distance  of  several  hundred 
miles  from  its  starting-point.  There  can  be  but  little 
question  that  an  elevation  of  two  or  three  thousand 
feet  in  the  centers  mentioned  would  be  ample  to  pro- 
duce the  results  of  the  glacial  phenomena  that  ra- 
diated from  them.  It  has  been  estimated  that  even 
w^ith  the  present  amount  of  precipitation  a  fall  of 
fourteen  degrees  in  the  temperature  would  produce  a 
glacial  period.  Not  only  might  this  fall  of  the  tem- 
perature be  occasioned  by  such  an  elevation,  but  the 
precipitation  of  snow  would  doubtless  be  largely  in- 
creased, so  that  from  this  double  cause  the  phenomena 
of  the  Glacial  epoch  can  be  readily  explained. 

We  come  therefore  to  the  immediate  questions  in 
hand,  How  long  a  time  is  requisite  for  the  production 
of  the  phenomena  of  the  Glacial  epoch?  How  long  a 
period  must  we  allow  for  its  growth,  and  how  long 
for  its  decline?  Especially  will  the  answer  to  the 
last  question   bear  upon   the   antiquity   of   man.      The 


488  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

answers  can  be  sought,  first,  In  the  calculations  we 
may  make  as  to  the  rate  at  which  elevation  of  conti- 
nental areas  may  proceed  for  a  considerable  period  of 
time;  and,  secondly,  from  the  rapidity  w^ith  which 
glaciers  may  spread  from  their  central  area;  and, 
thirdly,  from  the  character  of  the  deposits  left  by  the 
ice  in  the  course  of  its  decline  and  final  retreat. 

As  to  the  rate  of  elevation  in  continental  areas,  we 
have  something  to  guide  us  in  the  changes  which  have 
taken  place  within  the  historical  period.  We  are  fa- 
mih'ar  with  the  fact  that  the  land  level  is  by  no 
means  a  constant  quantity.  The  coast  of  New  Jersey 
is  subsiding  at  such  a  rate  that  if  it  should  continue 
for  a  million  years  the  land  would  be  carried  down 
several  thousand  feet  below  the  sea  level.  The  most 
impressive  scenes  of  recent  continental  elevation  are 
found  in  the  northern  part  of  North  America,  and  on 
the  Scandinavian  peninsula.  During  the  last  one 
hundred  and  forty  years  the  northern  part  of  Sweden 
has  risen  about  seven  feet.  One  hundred  miles  north 
of  Stockholm  it  is  esrimated  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell  that 
the  average  rate  of  elevation  is  between  two  and  three 
feet  in  a  century.-"^ 

A  little  calculation  will  show  tliat  the  elevation  from 
the  level  of  Tertiary  times  in  northern  latitudes  to  a 
height  sufficient  to  have  produced  the  glacial  phenom- 


Suniniary  and  Conclusion  489 

ciKi  ma>-  lia\o  proceeded  at  a  very  moderate  rate,  and 
still  have  produced  the  requisite  conditions  not  more 
than  one  hundred  tliousand  years  ago.  P^or  example, 
if  we  suppose  the  rate  of  elevation  in  the  northern 
latitudes  toward  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  period  to 
have  been  no  greater  than  that  which  is  taking  place 
at  the  present  time  in  portions  of  Scandinavia,  namely, 
three  feet  a  century,  that  would  give  us  thirty  feet  in 
one  thousand  years,  three  hundred  feet  in  ten  thousand 
years,  and  three  thousand  feet  in  one  hundred  thou- 
sand years.  Supposing  this  elevation  to  have  begun 
fifty  thousand  years  before  the  end  of  the  Tertiary 
period,  and  to  have  culminated  twenty  thousand  years 
ago,  the  rate  of  change  supposed  would  be  no  greater 
than  that  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  historical 
times. 

On  the  supposition  that  this  continental  elevation 
which  brought  on  the  Glacial  epoch  culminated 
twenty  thousand  years  ago,  there  would  be  left  a 
briefer  period  for  the  disappearance  of  glacial  condi- 
tions than  has  populariy  been  supposed  to  be  requisite. 
But  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  depression  of  the 
northern  land  from  its  Tertian^  elevation  to  its  pres- 
ent level,  or  indeed  to  a  level  in  some  places  twelve 
hundred  feet  lower  than  the  present,  would  be  aided 
by    the   great   weight   of    ice   which    had    accumulated 


490  Orig'ui  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

over  the  region.  It  is  a  reasonable  estimate  that  four 
million  square  miles  in  North  America  and  two 
million  in  Europe,  making  six  million  in  all,  was 
covered  with  ice  during  the  Glacial  epoch  to  an 
average  depth  of  a  mile.  This  would  give  us  six 
million  cubic  miles  of  ice  piled  up  upon  a  definite 
area.  All  this  had  been  abstracted  from  the  ocean, 
so  that  the  ocean  beds  were  relieved  from  pres- 
sure to  the  same  extent  that  the  pressure  was  in- 
creased over  the  limited  area  subject  to  glaciation. 
The  amount  of  water  thus  abstracted  from  the  ocean 
would  be  sufficient  to  lower  the  whole  ocean  level 
two  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  With  such  a  force  as 
this  to  assist  in  changing  the  equilibrium  of  the 
earth's  crust,  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  the  sub- 
sidence of  the  glaciated  area  was  several  times  as 
rapid  as  the  elevation  had  been.  It  is  believed,  also, 
by  many  of  the  ablest  geologists,  that  we  liave  marks 
of  this  disturbance  caused  by  the  load  of  ice  which 
covered  the  glaciated  area,  in  the  further  oscillation 
of  the  crust  in  northern  latitudes  producing  the  ex- 
treme subsidence  of  six  hundred  feet  at  Montreal, 
one  thousand  feet  in  Labrador,  and  from  fifteen  hun- 
dred to  two  thousand  feet  in  Western  Greenland  and 
Grinnell  Land.  When  the  abnormal  load  of  ice  had 
been    removed,    however,    the    elevator}'-    forces    reas- 


Sumnuiry    (uul    Coiiclusi'jn  49 1 

serteJ  their  prcdoir.inant  inilucncc,  and  arc  still  at 
work  in  raisin*:;  portions  of  this  rc<z;ion  to  a  level  still 
higher  than  that  which  they  have  now  reached. 

The  question,  whether  we  can  reasonably  think  of 
ice  accumulating  over  so  large  an  area  to  so  great  a 
depth  and  retreating  from  it  during  a  limited  period 
of  eighty  or  one  hundred  thousand  years  which  our 
previous  calculation  would  allow  for  the  period  has 
been  duly  considered,  and  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive, by  the  late  Sir  Joseph  Prestwich.*  As  elsewhere 
stated,  he  estimates  from  the  numerous  careful  re- 
ports made  by  the  Danish  surveyors  in  Greenland 
that  the  amount  of  ice  which  runs  off  from  the  w^est- 
ern  coast  of  Greenland  to  drift  away  as  icebergs 
would,  if  equalized  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 
the  coast,  form  a  fringe  one-eighth  of  a  mile  in  width  ; 
that  is,  if,  instead  of  concentrating  its  flow  through 
the  fiords,  the  Greenland  ice  moved  steadily  forward 
all  along  its  edge,  it  would  encroach  upon  the  un- 
glaciated  border  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  in  eight  years, 
or,  allowing  for  some  uncertainties  in  calculation,  a 
mile  in  twelve  years.  At  this  rate,  one  hundred  miles 
of  border  might  be  incorporated  in  the  glaciated  area 
in  twelve  hundred  years.  At  the  same  rate  the  spread 
of  the  ice  from  the  Laurentian  highlands  might  have 
reached   its  limit  of  seven  hundred   miles  in   less  than 


492  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

ten  thousand  years.    When,  therefore,  we  take  Into  ac- 
count the  small  amount  of  precipitation  in  Greenland, 
which  is  now  less  than  one-half  that  over  the  Lauren- 
tian    area,    it   will    be    seen   that   we    are    making    no 
extravagant    demands    upon    the    forces   of    nature    in 
supposing  that  the  time,   from  the  commencement  of 
the   accumulation   of   ice    upon    the    Laurentian    high- 
lands and  the   rising  plateaus  of   Scandinavia,  to  the 
culmination  of  the  period  when  Scandinavian  bowlders 
had  been  transported  upon  glacial  ice  over  the  plains 
of  Russia  to  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper  and  to  the  base 
of  the  Carpathian   Mountains,  a  distance  of   a  thou- 
sand  miles,   and  from  the  Laurentian  highlands  over 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  southern  portion  of  the  state 
of  Illinois,   and  westward   to   the  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,    a    distance    likewise    not    much    short    of 
one  thousand   miles,   need  not   be  more  than  twenty- 
five  thousand  years,   for  that  would  be  at  only  one- 
half  the  rate  of  progress  that  w^ould  be  made  by  the 
ice   fields   of  Greenland   in   similar  conditions  of  sur- 
rounding land  area.     If  the  Greenland  ice  sheet  could 
cover  these  fields  at  present  rates  in  twelve  thousand 
years,  what  might  not  the  Scandinavian  and  Lauren- 
tian ice  fields  do  with  twice  the  snowfall  and  twice 
the  time? 

Historv,  however,  leaves  us  still  a  great  way  from 


SunuiKiry    and    Conclusion  493 

the  solution  of  the  mystery  surrouiuHivj;  either  the 
origin  or  the  antiqiiit\'  of  the  human  race.  Whence 
came  the  civih'zation  of  Egjypt,  Babylonia,  and  Cen- 
tral Asia?  Whence  came  the  races  of  men  that  even 
then  appeared  upon  the  scene  in  all  their  present  pecul- 
iarities? Whence  were  derived  those  diversities  of 
language  characteristic  of  human  speech  ?  and  how 
long  a  time  would  have  been  necessary  from  the  first 
origination  of  the  human  species  to  account  for  the 
condition  of  advancement  at  which  they  were  found 
seven  thousand  years  ago?  A  brief  review  of  some 
of  the  principles  already  discussed  will  show  that 
there  is  no  scientific  necessity  for  placing  the  origin 
of  the  human  race  many  thousand  years  before  the 
beginning  of  history.  The  simple  arithmetical  calcu- 
lations made  above  «how  that,  when  once  started,  the 
dispersion  over  the  world,  the  diversification  of  the 
races,  the  differentiation  of  languages,  and  the  devel- 
opment of  ancient  civilization  may  easily  have  come 
about  in  the  course  of  four  or  five  thousand  years,  if 
not  in  half  that  time,  and  that  the  extension  of  pre- 
historic time  for  eight  thousand  years  affords  super- 
abundant opportunity  for  the  growth  and  development 
of  all  the  peculiarities  and  institutions  of  man  as  first 
made  know^n  to  us  at  the  dawn  of  history. 

But  we  are  not  left  to  general  considerations  alone 


494  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man 

to  Infer  that  post-glacial  time  may  be  limited  to  a 
few  thousand  ^ears.  We  have  adduced  in  a  previous 
chapter  evidence  from  the  erosion  of  post-glacial 
waterfalls,  from  the  silting  up  of  a  post-glacial  lake, 
and  from  the  small  amount  of  enlargement  of  post- 
glacial water  courses,  together  with  the  limited  size 
of  the  beaches  upon  Lake  Agassiz  and  the  small  ex- 
tent to  which  the  weathering  of  glaciated  rocks  has 
proceeded,  that  the  continental  glacier  disappeared 
from  North  America  not  more  than  seven  thousand 
years  ago,  and  that  its  disappearance  proceeded  at  a 
rate  probably  several  times  as  rapid  as  its  growth  had 
been.  The  antiquity  of  man,  therefore,  so  far  as  the 
question  depends  upon  his  connection  with  the  Gla- 
cial epoch,  is  not  proved  to  be,  even  when  we  allow 
a  generous  margin,  greater  than  twelve  or  fifteen 
thousand  years. 

Taking  now  a  rapid  glance  at  the  evidence  as  a 
whole,  we  find  that  from  historical  data  the  history 
of  man  is  carried  back  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to  a 
period  which,  according  to  the  largest  estimate,  began 
about  seven  thousand  years  ago.  At  the  same  time 
in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  in  Turkestan  it 
is  probable  there  was  a  civilization  of  a  somewhat 
earlier  age.  The  striking  thing  about  this  historical 
evidence   is    that    it   brings   to   light   compact   national 


Summary    ami    Com  liision  495 

orjjianizations  with  a  written  lan^ua*^c,  with  noble 
ideas  of  the  family  antl  of  both  social  and  political 
duties,  and  in  possession  of  a  skill  in  most  of  the 
practical  arts  of  life  that  has  been  little  improved 
upon  until  within  the  last  five  hundred  years  of  Eu- 
ropean civilization.  A  study  of  the  history  of  the 
world  reveals  the  further  fact  that  there  has  been  no 
marked  tendency  of  improvement  in  the  human  race, 
except  as  it  has  been  brought  in  contact  with  the 
developing  civilization  that  appeared  in  these  earliest 
historical  times.  The  peasantry  of  Egypt  are  to-day 
substantially  what  they  were  seven  thousand  y-ears 
ago.  The  Patagonians  are  no  higher  in  their  civili- 
zation than  were  the  River  Drift  men  of  Northern 
France,  while  the  Cave  men  of  France  and  Belgium 
would  compare  favorably  with  some  of  the  tribes  of 
Australia.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  all  civilization  is 
traced  back  to  that  in  the  valleys  of  the  Nile,  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Murgab  which  appears  in  full 
tide  four  or  five  thousand  years  before  the  Christian 
era.  From  Central  Asia  the  world  received  in  this 
dim  prehistoric  period  the  inestimable  boon  of  the 
most  of  its  domesticated  plants  and  animals.  From 
Eg}'pt  the  world  received  an  alphabet  and  a  written 
language.  The  torch  of  Grecian  civilization  was 
lighted  upon   Egyptian  altars;  the  culture  of  Rome  is 


496  Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Alan 

but  a  reflection  of  that  which  attained  such  gorgeous 
development  in  Greece;  the  rising  tide  of  civilization 
in  the  nineteenth  century  receives  its  strongest  im- 
pulses from  that  Semitic  nation  whose  ancestors  were 
sojourners  in  Egypt  thirty-five  hundred  years  ago, 
and  whose  greatest  lawgiver  and  leader  had  it  for 
one  of  his  most  distinguishing  characteristics  that  he 
was  brought  up  in  the  household  of  the  Pharaohs  and 
was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt.  The  histor^* 
of  the  human  race  as  we  actually  know  it  gives  no 
countenance  to  any  doctrine  of  universal  and  general 
progress  among  the  races  of  mankind,  but  sustains 
rather  a  doctrine  of  predominant  natural  tendencies 
to  degeneration,  which  is  only  counteracted  by  con- 
tact with  specially  favored  nations  and  by  voluntary' 
acceptance  of  their  most  valuable  ideas  and  practices. 
While  the  antiquity  of  man  cannot  be  less  than  ten 
thousand,  it  need  not  be  more  than  fifteen  thousand 
years.  Eight  thousand  years  of  prehistoric  time  is 
ample  to  account  for  all  known  facts  relating  to  his 
development.  Whether  he  was  a  mere  scientific 
"  sport,"  or  was  assisted  to  his  preeminence  by  divine 
intervention,  is  a  question  of  philosophy.  That  it  was 
by  divine  intervention  will  be  the  verdict  of  most 
sane  and  candid  minds. 


Appendix 

.CHAPTER   I 

Note  i,  p.  6 — Estimates  of  the  absolute  length  of 
geological  time  vary  from  the  10,000,000  years  of 
Tait  to  the  6,000,000,000  years  of  McGee  {A?neri- 
can  Anthropologist,  vol.  ii.  p.  309)  ;  at  the  present 
time  most  of  the  estimates  come  within  100,000,000 
years,  and  the  tendency  is  to  settle  down  upon  about 
24,000,000  years  (Dana,  "  Manual  of  Geology,"  4th 
ed.,  pp.  1023-1026;  Clarence  King,  American  Jour- 
nal of  Science  J  January,  1893,  pp.  1-20;  Wallace, 
"  Island  Life,"  chap.  x. ;  Newcomb,  "Astronomy," 
p.  519;  Young,  "The  Sun,"  chap.  viii. ;  Ball,  "  Stor\- 
of  the  Heavens,"  last  chapter;  Croll,  "Climate  and 
Time,"  chap,  xx.,  "Stellar  Evolution";  Upham, 
Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  1.  pp.  131-149;  American 
Journal  of  Science,  March,  1893,  PP-  209-220;  and 
Wright's  "  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period,"  pp.  361- 
364).  Dr.  Charles  D.  Walcott,  late  Director  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  after  an  extended 
discussion  of  the  whole  subject,  in  which  the  views 
of  others  are  fully  summarized,  fixes  the  limits  of 
geological  time,  as  shown  in  stratified  deposits,  to  be 
between  25,000,000  and  70,000,000  years,  and  con- 
cludes that  "  Geologic  time  is  of  great  but  not 
of    indefinite    duration.      I    believe,"    he    savs,    "  that 


498  Appendix 

it  can  be  measured  by  tens  of  millions  but  not 
by  single  millions  or  hundreds  of  millions  of  years  " 
(Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  vol.  xlii.  (1893)  p.  169).  Ef- 
forts have  been  made  to  destroy  confidence  in  the 
calculations  drawn  from  the  theory  of  the  nebular 
hypothesis  and  the  rate  at  which  heat  radiates  from 
the  sun  by  dwelling  upon  the  mysterious  powers  of 
radium,  and  by  challenging  the  nebular  hypothesis. 
But  the  most  of  the  above  calculations  cannot  be 
affected  by  such  objections.  George  H.  Darwin's 
calculations  are  based  upon  the  effect  of  the  tides 
resulting  from  the  universal  lav/  of  gravitation. 

Note  2,  p.  8. — "Manual  of  Geology"  (4th  ed.), 
pp.   1023-1026. 

Note  3,  p.  8. — Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  i.  (1893) 
pp.  294,  295. 

Note  4,  p.  8. — Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  I.  p.  146. 

Note  5,  p.  20. — Le  Conte,  "  Elements  of  Geol- 
ogy," pp.  333,  402,  475. 

Note  6,  p.  24. — Lamplugh,  Address  before  Brit- 
ish Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  at 
Vork,  1906. 

chapter  II 

Note  i,  p.  31. — Rev.  James  Baikie,  "The  Sea 
Kings  of  Crete"  (London,  Black,  1910,  pp.  xiv,  288. 
Imported  by  Macmillan  Co.,  N.  Y.)  ;  R.  Burrows, 
"  Discoveries  in  Crete,  and  their  Bearing  on  the  His- 


Appendix  499 

tory  of  Ancient  Civilizntion  "  (London.  Murray, 
1 907.  pp.  xvi,  214)  ;  C.  H.  Hawes  and  H.  B.  Havves, 
"Crete,  the  Forerunner  of  Greece"  (London  and 
New  York,  Harper  Bros.,  1909,  pp.  xiV,  157);  An- 
o;elo  Mosso,  "  The  Dawn  of  Mediterranean  Civiliza- 
tion "  (N.  v..  Baker,  pp.  xxiii,  424);  Arthur  J. 
Evans,  "  Palace  of  Knossos,"  "  Reports  of  Excavations 
1900-05"  in  Annual  of  British  School  at  A.thens,  vol. 
vi.  ff.,  "  The  Prehistoric  Tombs  of  Knossos"  (1905). 
Note  2.  p.  41. — Winckler  and  some  other  authori- 
ties would  bring  this  date  down  to  3000  B.C. ;  but 
there  seems  no  sufficient  reason  for  discrediting  the 
conclusion  of  Nabonidus,  especially  as  there  are  so 
many  other  considerations  supporting  an  early  date 
for  the  civilization  of  the  region.  Indeed,  the  discov- 
eries of  De  Sarzec  at  Telloh,  and  of  Haines  and  Hil- 
precht  at  Nippur,  would  seem  to  trace  Babylonian 
civilization  back  to  3000  B.C.  The  latest  information 
bearing  on  Babylonian  chronology  is  afforded  by  a 
tablet  discovered  by  Professor  Vincent  Scheil  of 
Paris,  who  was  the  first  to  publish  and  interpret  the 
Code  of  Hammurabi.  According  to  this  tablet  the 
earliest  dynasty  of  all  had  its  center  at  Opis,  a  city 
not  far  from  the  modern  Bao:dad.  The  Opis  dynasty 
lasted  ninety-nine  years  and  was  followed  by  the  Kish 
dynasty,  which  continued  126  years,  the  Urich  dy- 
nasty twenty-five  years,  when  it  was  followed  by  the 
famous  Sargon  who  introduced  the  dynasty  of  Agade 
(Accad^  which  lasted  197  years.  Then  follow- 
other    dynasties    continuing    to    that    of    Hammurabi, 


500  Appendix 

about  2000  B.C.  But  the  interval  between  Sargon 
and  Haoimurabi  is  not  much  more  than  400  years. 
According  to  these  figures,  therefore,  the  date  of  Sar- 
gon would  be  brought  down  to  about  2500  B.C. 

Note  3,  p.  42. — Maspero,  "  The  Dawn  of  Civili- 
zation "  (London,  1896);  "The  Struggle  of  the 
Nations "  (London,  1896)  ;  McCurdy,  "  History, 
Prophecy,  and  the  Monuments"  (New  York,  1894), 
vol.  i.;  Jastrow^  "  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  " 
(Boston,  1898),  p.  36;  Hilprecht,  "The  Babylonian 
Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  "  (Phila- 
delphia, 1896)  ;  Hommel,  art.  "  Babylonia,"  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  vol.  i.  p.  223;  J.  P.  Peters, 
"  Nippur,  or  Explorations  and  Adventures  on  the 
Euphrates,  being  the  Narrative  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  Expedition  to  Babylonia  in  1888-90" 
(New  York,  1897),  vol.  ii. ;  A.  T.  Clay,  "  Light  on  the 
Old  Testament  from  Babel,"  pp.  31-34;  o"  PP-  44> 
138,  196,  he  mentions  an  inscription  of  Lugal-zaggisi, 
whom  he  places  at  about  4000  B.C.  He  also  places, 
pp.  30,  117,  a  pavement  of  Sargon  L  and  his  son  at 
about  3800  B.C.  See  his  discussion  of  this  subject  un- 
der the  heading,  "  The  Great  Antiquity  of  Man," 
loc.  cit.,  chap.  ii.  pp.  23  ff. 

Note  4,  p.  45.— A.  T.  Clay,  "  Light  on  the  Old 
Testament  from  Babel,"  pp.  55,  56. 

Note  5,  p.  46. — ^Winckler,  "  History  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria,"  pp.  49,  141,   142. 

Note  6,  p.  47. — "  Contra  Apion,"  book  i.  chap.  14. 


Appendix  501 

Note  7.  p.  47. — Bunscn,  "  Egypt's  Place  in  His- 
tory," vol.  i.  pp.  601  ff. 

NoTK  8,  p.  50. — Brutiscli,  ''  Kgypt  under  the  Pha- 
roahs,"  vol.  i.  p.  92. 

NoTL^  9,  p.  51. — Baedeker,  "Egypt"    (1897). 

Note  10,  p.  52. — For  the  extracts  here  given  see 
the  translation  made  by  Dr.  Howard  Osgood  in  Bib- 
liothcca  Sacra,  vol.  xlv.  (October,  1888)  pp.  648- 
b88. 

Note  ii,  p.  63. — Raphael  Pumpelly,  Editor,  "Ex- 
plorations in  Turkestan,  Expedition  of  1904"  (2 
vols.,  494  pp.),  esp.  vol.  i.  chaps,  iii.  and  iv.  pp. 
37-75- 

.    Note    12,    p.    67. — Brugsch,    "  Egjpt    under    the 
Pharaohs,"  vol.  i.  p.  7. 

chapter  III 

Note  i,  p.  72.— A.  T.  Clay,  "Light  on  the  Old 
Testament  from  Babel,"  pp.   136-138. 

Note  2,  p.  73. — The  languages  of  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  show  affiliation  in  the  earliest  inscriptions. 
The  affinity  is  most  pronounced  in  grammatical  con- 
structions. ( I )  They  have  the  same  masculine  and 
feminine  gender  endings.  (2)  Identical  pronominal 
suffixes.  (3)  The  peculiar  adjectival  termination 
"  nisbeh."  (4)  Identity  of  several  numerals.  (5) 
Identity  of  several  verbal  inflections.  (6)  Verbal 
nouns  with  prefixed  "  m."  (7)  Correspondence  be- 
tween   fifteen    or   more    Semitic   and    Egyptian    conso- 


502  Appendix 

nants,  including  alcph,  vauv,  ay  in.  (8)  The  lack  of 
written  vowels. 

But  (i)  The  correspondence  of  root  words  is 
slight.  (2)  The  Egyptian  does  not  have  triliteral 
roots,  (3)  The  Babylonian  written  language  had 
almost  entirely  lost  its  pictorial  character  in  the  earliest 
inscriptions.  But  the  pictorial  writing  in  Egypt  main- 
tained a  parallel  existence  with  the  hieratic  and  de- 
motic down  to  late  times.  It  was  peculiarly  used  for 
sacred  literature  and  ornamental  inscriptions  (see  art. 
"  Egypt."  in  Hastings'  Diet,  of  Bible;  Boscawen, 
"  The  Bible  and  the  Monuments  ";  Erman,  "  History 
of  Egypt"). 

Note  3,  p.  77. — But  see  a  comparative  grammar 
of  the  Semitic  and  Aryan  languages  entitled,  "  Se- 
mitisch  und  Indogermanisch,"  by  Professor  Hermann 
Moller  of  the  University  of  Copenhagen.  It  appears 
to  be  a  most  thorough  and  careful  work  and  seems 
to  prove  the  original  oneness  of  these  two  great  lin- 
guistic families. 

Note  4,  p.  79. — W.  D.  Whitney,  "  Language  and 
the  Study  of  Language,"  p.  331. 

Note  5,  p.  81.— W.  D.  Whitney,  "Life  and 
Growth  of  Language,"  p.  260. 

Note  6,  p.  82. — Ibid.,  p.  261. 

Note  7,  p.  83. — This  word  is  instructive;  for  it 
shows  the  agglutinative  side  of  the  Sanskrit,  which  al- 
most rivals  the  languages  of  the  American  Indians  in  its 
capacity  for  such  combinations,  although  it  is  a  highly 
inflected  tongue.     The  word  is  made  up  as  follows: — 


hhariria,  ''  pot  ";  pur/;a,  "  full  "  or  "  filled  "  ;  kuiiihha: 
"  jar  "  ;    kara,    "  maker  "  ;    ina//^/apika,    "  little   shop  "  ; 
cka.  "  one  ";  deca,  "  place."    It  is  typical  of  many  San- 
skrit compounds,  the  parts  of  which   must  be  sought 
in  the  lexicon  and  then  put  together  by  the  translator. 
The  elements  arc  somewhat  more  complex  than  those 
used    in    ap^glutinative   lan^ruages    usually   are;   but   in 
other  respects  the  word  in  question  is  a  good  example 
of  an  agglutinative  form,  and  it  shows  how  the  three 
types  of   languages   cross   and    recross  one  another  in 
their  formations.     The  word  "  inapplicabilities,"  cited 
above,  is  also  a  case  in  point.     It  is  made  up  of  in,  ad, 
pHc-,  able,  -i-ty,  and  -e-s,  the  plural  sign.     The  com- 
ponent parts  arc  more  simple  than  those  used  in  the 
Sanskrit  word ;  but  the  compound  itself  is  also  more 
of  a  unit.     It  is,  in  fact,  a  genuine  compound,  though 
ag-glutinative,  while  the  Sanskrit  word  is  only  loosely 
so,   each   element    retaining   its   individuality    and    dis- 
tinctive meaning  more  sharply  than  is  possible  in  the 
English    example.      Such   cases   help    to   illustrate   the 
difficulties    which    beset    the    linguistic    argument    on 
every   side ;    for   they   go   to   show   how   intricate    and 
confusing     the     problem     really     is.      The     different 
threads    are    now    so    interwoven    and    entangled  that 
the  utmost  patience  is  necessary  to  obtain  even  tenta- 
tive results.     There  is,   however,   another  side  to  the 
matter ;  for  these  agglutinative  tendencies  in  inflected 
languages   point   toward    an   ultimate   origin   that   wms 
the  same  for  the  whole  human  race,  since  they  show 
the  same   forces   at   work   in   lano"uages  otherwise   to- 


504  Appendix 

tally  different.  German  is  often  strongly  agglutina- 
tive, especially  in  some  of  its  technical  terms;  and  it 
was  the  same  capacity  in  the  Greek  v/hich  enabled 
Aristophanes  to  coin  his  famous  word  for  "  hash,"  by 
joining  together  the  names  of  all  the  ingredients  used 
for  such  compounds. 

Note  8,  p.  83. — "  Language  and  the  Study  of  Lan- 
guage," p.  347. 

Note  9,  p.  84. — "  The  Origin  of  Languages  and 
the  Antiquity  of  Speaking  Man,"  an  address  by  Hora- 
tio Hale,  Vice  President  of  the  Anthropological  Sec- 
tion of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science.  See  the  Proceedings  of  the  Association, 
vol.  XXXV.   (1886)  pp.  280-333. 

Note  10,  p.  92. — This  account  is  given  in  Hale's 
address  noted  above,  pp.  286-288. 

Note  ii,  p.  93. — "  Singular  Development  of  Lan- 
guage in  a  Child,"  Monthly  Journal  of  Psychological 
Medicine  (1868);  the  substance  of  the  article  is 
given  in  Hale's  address,  pp.  289-292. 

Note  12,  p.  99. — See  Hale's  address,  p.  300. 

Note  13,  p.  loi. — As  to  the  ultimate  origin  of 
language,  concerning  w^hich  much  has  been  written, 
little  need  be  added  to  what  has  already  been  said. 
External  stimuli  usually  cause  animals  to  give  utter- 
ance to  inarticulate  cries  denoting  rage,  fear,  hunger, 
joy,  etc.,  and  these  cries  are  easily  understood.  Under 
precisely  similar  conditions,  though  in  a  much  broader 
field,    primitive    man    must    have    uttered    sounds   that 


Appendix  505 

were  articulate,  and  these  must  have  speedily  crystal- 
ized  into  words  which  thus  became  a  means  for  rep- 
resenting the  related  things.  An  interchange  of  ideas 
on  a  limited  scale  then  became  possible,  and  this  ten- 
dency once  started,  was  bound  to  grow.  In  the  last 
analysis,  this  may  be  what  Heyse  had  in  mind  when 
he  formulated  his  much  ridiculed  "  Ding-dong  "  the- 
ory, according  to  which  each  substance  in  nature  has 
its  own  pecidiar  ring,  so  that  primitive  man  must 
have  "  possessed  an  instinctive  '  faculty  for  giving  ar- 
ticulate expression  to  the  rational  conceptions  of  his 
mind.'  "  Two  other  theories,  the  "  Bow-wow  "  and 
the  *'  Pooh-pooh,"  have  been  opposed  to  this.  The 
first  teaches  that  language  began  with  onomatopoetic 
signs  formed  by  the  imitation  of  natural  sounds;  the 
second,  that  interjections  were  the  first  articulate  w^ords 
and   therefore  the  ultimate  beginnings  of  speech. 

The  importance  of  the  two  latter  theories  is  recog- 
nized by  AMiitney,  who  groups  them  together,  making 
the  third  subordinate  to  the  second.  The  other  the- 
or)^  he  rejects,  although  it  seems  quite  possible  to  make 
it  include  both  of  these  without  unduly  stretching  it. 
Max  Miiller  doubtless  carried  it  too  far;  but  the 
examples  given  above  appear  to  indicate  its  general 
soundness  at  bottom.  Moreover,  if  man  had  been 
without  "  an  instinctive  '  faculty  for  giving  articulate 
expression  to  the  rational  conceptions  of  his  mind,'  " 
he  would  have  been  as  helpless  as  a  parrot,  so  far 
as  framing  a  language  was  concerned.  Whitney  is 
right  in  maintaining  that  language,  properly  so-called, 


5o6  Appendix 

involves  the  perception  of  quality,  and  that  terms 
expressive  of  quality  ultimately  became  the  chief 
foundation  on  which  the  linguistic  superstructure  was 
reared ;  but  that  does  not  by  any  means  exclude  the 
basic  idea  of  the  "  Ding-dong "  theory.  Nor  does 
his  other  contention  that  the  desire  to  communicate 
with  one  another  was  the  real  source  of  language. 
The  capacity  had  to  be  there  at  the  beginning,  and 
no  language  could  possibly  have  been  produced  with- 
out it.  A  parrot  can  learn  to  speak;  but  he  cannot 
originate  anything.  He  imitates  sounds;  but  he  never 
coins  words  from  them.  That  province  was  reserved 
for  man,  and  he  alone  can  occupy  it. 

CHAPTER    IV 

Note  i,  p.  104. — For  the  facts  relating  to  Origin 
of  the  Races  of  Europe  we  are  largely  indebted  to 
"  The  Races  of  Europe,  A  Sociological  Study,"  N. 
Y.,  D.  Appleton  and  Co.,  1899,  PP-  xxxii,  624,  with 
numerous  maps  and  photographs.  By  William  Z. 
Ripley,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Sociology  in 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  and  Lec- 
turer on  Anthropology  at  Columbia  University  in  the 
City  of  New  York. 

Note  2,  p.  107. — Lyell.  "Antiquity  of  Man," 
chap  ii. 

Note  3,  p.  no. — See  paper  of  Edmund  Andrews, 
American  Journal  of  Scicnrc,  2d  ser.,  vol.  xlv.  pp. 
180-190  (March,  1868). 


Af^l^cndix  507 

NoTH  J.,  p.  III. — Ripley.  "  R;ices  of  Kuropc,"  p. 
458. 

NoTi-:  5,  p.  1 1  J?. — Ih'uL,  p.  54. 

Note  O,  p.  114. — "  Urizcschichte  Kuropas,  Grund- 
zuge    einer   prahist.    Arch:i^ologie,"    Strassburg,    1905. 

Note  7,  p.  116. — Ripley,  "Races  of  Europe,"  p. 
176. 

Note  8,  p.   122. — I  bid,  pp.  366,  367. 

Note  9,  p.   127. — Ibid.,  p.  502. 

CHAPTER    V 

Note  i,  p.  139. — Lewis  Morgan,  "The  Consan- 
guinity and  Affinity  of  the  Human  Family,"  Smith- 
sonian Report,  vol.  xvii.  (1871);  "Indian  AJigra- 
tions,"  North  Afiicrican  Revieic,  vol.  cix.  (1869)  pp. 
391-442.  vol.  ex.   (1870)   pp.  33-82. 

Note  2,  p.  141. — Records  of  the  Past  (Washing- 
ton)   vol.   vii.    (Oct.   1908)   pp.  219-232. 

CHAPTER    VI 

Note  i,  p.  159. — Records  of  the  Past  (Washing- 
ton), vol.  V.    (1906)   p.   187. 

Note  2,  p.  162. — Chamberlin  and  Salisbury,  "Ge- 
ology," vol.  iii.  p.  357. 

Note  3,  p.  162. — Author's  "  Ice  Age  in  North 
America." 

Note  4,  p.  163.— Author's  "Asiatic  Russia,"  p. 
510;  also,  especially  the  report  of  William  \l.  Davis 


5o8  Appendix 

and  E.  Huntington,  in  "  Explorations  in  Turkestan," 
Expedition  of  1903  under  the  direction  of  Raphael 
Pumpelly,  Washington,  D.  C,  published  by  the  Car- 
negie Institution,  April,   1905,  pp.  84-92. 

Note  5,  p.  167. — ^Author's  "  Scientific  Confirma- 
tions of  Old  Testament  History,"  pp.  334-347- 

Note  6,  p.  167. — Author's  ''  Ice  Age  in  North 
America"    (5th  ed.),  pp.  366-372. 

Note  7,  p.  167. — O.  D.  von  Engeln,  "  Phenomena 
associated  with  Glacier  Drainage  and  Wastage,  with 
especial  reference  to  observations  in  the  Yakutat  Bay 
Region,  Alaska,"  Zeitschrift  fiir  Gletscherkunde,  vol. 
vi.   (1911)   pp.   104-150- 

Note  8,  p.  170. — Proceedings  of  the  Victoria  In- 
stitute, vol.  xl.  p.  151  :  also  vols,  xxx.,  xxxi.,  xxxii. 

Note  9,  p.  180.. — Baptist  Quarterly  for  July,  1884. 

Note  10,  p.  182. — Author's  "  Ice  Age  In  North 
America"   (5th  ed.),  pp.  565-567- 

NoTE  II,  p.  186. — Bulletin  of  the  Geological  So- 
ciety of  America,  vol.  iv.  (1893)  pp.  423-427;  au- 
thor's "  Ice  Age  In  North  America  "  (5th  ed.),  p.  542. 

Note  12,  p.  187. — "Recent  Earth  Movement  in 
the  Great  Lakes  Region,"  U.  S.  Geol.  Surv.,  i8th  An. 
Report,  pt.  il.  pp.  601-647. 

Note  13,  p.  188. — ''The  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz," 
pp.  238-244. 

Note  14,  p.  192. — Author's  "  Ice  Age  in  North 
America"    (5th  ed.),   pp.   572-575- 

Note  15,  p.  193. — "A  Thermographlcal  Record  of 


.Ippr/Nlix  509 

the    Late    Quaternary    Climate,"    Postglaziale   Kiuna- 
virandcnuifrcn,  Stockholm,   19 10,  p.  309. 

Note  iO,  p.  19-I.— Hnllctin  of  the  Geological  So- 
ciety of  America,  vol.  ii.  p.   19O. 

Note  17,  p.  195.— "  Lake  Lahontan,"  U.  S.  Geol. 
Survey,   Monograph,   XI,  p.  273. 

Note  18,  p.  195. — See  Quarterly  Journal  of  the 
Geolofrical  Society,  vol.  xxxix,  1883,  in  Proceedings, 
pp.  67-69;  cf.  id.,  vol.  xlii.  pp.  527-539;  Bulletin  of 
the  Geological  Society  of  America,  vol.  i.  pp.  306, 
308;  Geological  Survey  of  Canada,  Report  of  Prog- 
ress, 1 875-70,  p.  90;  also  author's  ''Ice  Age  in 
North  America"   (5th  ed.),  p.  568  f. 

Note  19,  p.  197.—"  Collected  Papers  on  some  Con- 
troverted Questions  of  Geology,"  pp.  40,  41. 

Note  20,  p.  204.— Author's  "  Ice  Age  in  North 
America"   (5th  ed.),  pp.  55-68. 

Note  21,  p.  204. — See,  among  others,  the  paper  by 
Professor  I.  C.  Russell,  Scottish  Geographical  Mag- 
azine, 1894,  and  the  reports  of  Professor  H.  F.  Reid 
on  "  Variations  of  Glaciers,"  in  the  Journal  of  Ge- 
ology, from  year  to  year. 

Note  22,  p.  206. — American  Journal  of  Science, 
vol.  xvil   1879,  pp.   133-144. 

Note  23,  p.  206. — American  Geologist,  vol.  x.  pp. 
25-44. 

Note  24,  p.  214.— Author's  "Ice  Age  in  North 
America"  (5th  ed.),  pp.  151-166;  also,  especially,  his 
art.     "  Post-glacial   Erosion   and   Oxidation,"  Bulletin 


5IO  Appendix 

of    the    Geological     Society    of    America,    vol.    xxiii. 
(June,  1912)   pp.  277-295. 

Note  25,  p.  217. — Isaiah  Bowman,  "The  Geo- 
logic Relations  of  the  Cuzco  Remains,"  American 
Journal  of  Science,  4th  ser.,  vol.  xxxiii.  (April,  1912) 
pp.  306-325. 

CHAPTER    VII 

Note  i,  p.  219. — Report  by  Lewis  and  Wright  in 
vol.  Z  of  the  2d  Geol.  Survey  of  Pa. ;  also  author's 
"Ice  Age  in  North  America"    (5th  ed.),   pp.  625  ff. 

Note  2,  p.  222. — Abbott,  "Primitive  Industry"; 
Professor  Henry  W.  Haynes'  report  published  in  the 
author's  "  Ice  Age  in  North  America  "  (5th  ed.),  pp. 
619-622. 

Note  3,  p.  225. — Report  of  Professors  Hollick, 
Libbey,  Mercer,  Abbott,  and  G.  F.  Wright,  in  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  A.  A.  A.  S.,  46th  meeting  held  at 
Detroit,  Aug.  1897,  PP-  344-399;  <ilso  Records  of  the 
Past,  vol.  X.   (1911)   pp.  273-282. 

Note  4,  p.  225. — Ernest  Volk,  "Archaeology  of 
the  Delaw^are  Valley,"  vol.  v.  of  the  Papers  of  the 
Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology  and  Eth- 
nology, Harvard  University,  pp.  xvi,  258.  Cam- 
bridge,  Mass.,   191 1. 

Note  5,  p.  226. — Popular  Science  Monthly,  July, 
1891,  May,  1893,  and  December,  1895;  also  "Man 
and  the  Glacial  Period,"  2d  ed.,  preface,  p.  xv ;  also 
"Ice  Age  in  North  America"  ( Sth  ed.),  pp.  645- 
648. 


I  p />('/!  flix 


511 


NoTR  6,  p.  228. — ''  Ice  AjTC  in  North  America  " 
(5th  ed.),  p.  612. 

Note  7,  p.  229.— Paper  of  Dr.  W^-irren  Upham 
before  Boston  Societ)-  of  Natural  History,  December 
^l,  1887,  summarized  in  ''Ice  Ag-e  in  North  Amer- 
ica" (5th  ed.),  pp.  O54-666;  also  N.  H.  Winchell, 
"  Pre-Indian  Inhabitants  of  Minnesota,"  chapter  i.  of 
the  "Aborigines  of  Minnesota,"  published  by  the  Min- 
nesota Historical  Society,  191 1,  first  printed  in  Rec- 
ords  of  the  Fast,  vol.  vi.  (1907)  pp.  145-157,  163- 
181. 

Note  8,  p.  230.— Paper  of  G.  F.  Wright  and  Miss 
Luella  Owen  on  "  Evidence  of  the  Agency  of  Water 
in  the  Distribution  of  Loess  in  the  Missouri  Valley," 
American  Geologist,  vol.  xxxiii.  pp.  205-222;  also 
vol.  XXXV.  pp.  236-240;  also  Records  of  the  Past,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  1 1 9-1 24;  but  especially  N.  H.  Winchell  on  the 
"  Pleistocene  Geology  of  the  Concannon  Farm  near 
Lansing,  Kansas,"  American  Geologist,  vol.  xxxi. 
(AL^y,  1903)  pp.  263-308,  summarized  in  "  Ice  Age 
in   North  America"    (5th  ed.),   pp.   678-683. 

Note  9,  p.  232.— Author's  "  Origin  and  Distribu- 
tion of  the  Loess  in  Northern  China  and  Central 
Asia,"  Bulletin  of  Geological  Society  of  America,  vol. 
xiii.  pp.  127-138;  also  his  "Scientific  Confirmations 
of  Old  Testament  Histor},"  pp.  272-343. 

Note  10,  p.  233.— Author's  "Asiatic  Russia,"  p. 
502 ;  "  Scientific  Confirmations  of  Old  Testament 
Histor}',"   p.   302 ;   and    "  Origin   and   Distribution  of 


512  Appendix 

Loess  in  Northern  China  and  Central  Asia/'  op.  cit., 
p.   133. 

Note  ii,  p.  234. — Author's  "Scientific  Confirma- 
tions," as  above,  chap.  xi. 

Note  12,  p.  235. — See  Warren  Upham,  American 
Geologist,  vol.  XXX.  pp.  135-150;  Winchell,  as  above, 
American  Geologist,  vol.  xxxi.  pp.  263-308;  author's 
"Age  of  the  Lansing  Skeleton,"  Records  of  the  Past, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  1 1 9-1 24,  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  Ix.  pp. 
28-32. 

Note  13,  p.  235. — Nebraska  Geological  Survey, 
vol.  ii.  pt.  V.  pp.  318-327,  pt.  vi.  pp.  331-348;  also 
Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  vi.  pp.  34—39. 

Note  14,  p.  238. — Henry  Fairfield  Osborn,  "Age 
of  Mammals"  (New  York,  Macmillan,  191 1),  pp. 
501-509;  also  author's  "  Ice  Age  in  North  America  " 
(5th  ed.),  pp.  436-438. 

Note  15,  p.  240. — Author's  "Scientific  Confirma- 
tions of  Old  Testament  History,"  pp.  347-355 ;  W. 
Boyd  Dawkins,  "  Early  Man  in  Britain,"  p.  266. 

Note  16,  p.  241. — Professor  J.  E.  Todd  called  my 
attention  some  years  ago  to  strata  of  this  volcanic  aslY 
appearing  underneath  the  loess  forming  the  bluffs  on 
the  western  side  of  the  Missouri  River,  north  of 
Omaha.  In  the  first  volume  of  Professor  Barbour's 
report  on  the  geology  of  Nebraska  we  learn  that  this 
volcanic  ash  is  found  in  nearly  every  county  of  the 
state  of  Nebraska,  the  deposits  growing  thicker  and 
coarser  towards   the   west,   where  thev  often    reach  a 


Appendix  513 

depth  of  a  bund  red  feet  or  more.  The  deposits  are 
found  also  in  Kansas  and  to  a  h'mited  extent  in  Iowa 
and  South  Dakota.  The  material  must  have  been 
poured  forth  from  volcanic  vents  several  hundred 
miles  to  the  southwest  and  have  been  transported  by 
wind  during  the  closing  stages  of  the  Glacial  epoch. 
In  a  large  number  of  cases,  however,  it  seems  to  have 
fallen  into  bodies  of  still  water. 

Note  17,  p.  246. — Author's  "Ice  Age  in  North 
America"  (5th  ed.),  pp.  500-510;  "Scientific  Con- 
firmations of  Old  Testament  History,"  chap.  viii. 

Note  18,  p.  247. — Hiram  Bingham,  "The  Discov- 
ery of  Prehistoric  Human  Remains  near  Cuzco,  Peru," 
American  Journal  of  Science,  4th  ser.,  vol.  xxxiii. 
(April,  1912)  pp.  297-305;  George  F.  Eaton,  "Re- 
port on  the  Remains  of  Man  and  of  Lower  Animals 
from  the  Vicinity  of  Cuzco,  Peru,"  Ibid.,  pp.  325- 
333. 

CHAPTER   VIII 

Note  i,  p.  250. — These  facts  can  be  found  clearly 
stated  in  any  standard  geology  and  various  govern- 
ment reports  upon  the  region ;  but  one  would  get  the 
most  vivid  impression  of  the  facts  from  Sir  Archibald 
Geikie's   "  Geological   Sketches,"  pp.    186-192. 

Note  2,  p.  255. — J.  D.  Whitney,  "  Report  on  the 
Auriferous  Gravels  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,"  1879,  p. 
258  f. 

Note  3,  p.  260. — Bulletin  of  the  Geological  So- 
ciety of  America,  vol.  ii.  p.  192. 


514  Appendix 

Note  4,  246. — William  J.  Sinclair,  "  Recent  In- 
vestigations Bearing  on  the  Question  of  the  Occur- 
rence of  Neocene  Man  in  the  Auriferous  Gravels  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada,"  vol.  vii.  No.  2  of  the  publica- 
tions of  the  University  of  California  in  American  Ar- 
chaeology and  Ethnology. 

Note  5,  p.  266. — For  the  detailed  evidence  see 
Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  His- 
tory, vol.  xxiv.  pp.  424-450,  and  vol.  xxv.  (Feb. 
1 891)   pp".  242-246. 

Note  6,  p.  269. — ^W.  J.  Sollas,  "Ancient  Hunt- 
ers," p.  261.  The  Venus  impudica  here  figured  is 
carved  from  ivory.  Of  the  perfection  of  some  of  the 
carvings  of  Aurignacian  age  M.  Salomon  Reinach  re- 
marks that  "  by  their  realism  and  intelligent  render- 
ing of  the  female  form  they  are  superior  to  all  the 
artistic  productions  of  the  lEgt^n  and  Babylonia." 

Note  7,  p.  274. — The  reader  will  get  a  most  vivid 
impression  of  these  lava  deposits  by  referring  to  Sir 
Archibald  Geikie's  "  Geological  Sketches,"  pp.  237- 
245,  where  he  describes  his  personal  impression  on 
visiting  the   region. 

Note  8,  p.  278.— G.  K.  Gilbert,  "Lake  Bonne- 
ville," Monograph  I,  of  the  U.  S.  Geol.   Survey. 

Note  9,  p.  284.— Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Geol.  Sur- 
vey, No.  79  (1891),  being  a  report  by  Joseph  S.  Dil- 
ler  on  "A  Late  Volcanic  ?>uption  in  Northern  Cali- 
fornia." 


Appendix  515 

CHAPTER    IX 

NoTF-  I,  p.  390. — The  reader  will  do  well  to  o;o 
back  to  the  earliest  description  found  in  Lyell's  "An- 
tiquity of  Man  "  and   Prestwich's  "  Geoloczy." 

Note  2,  p.  293.— Lyell's  "Antiquity  of  Man,"  pp. 
140-144. 

Note  3,  p.  295. — A  convincing  paper  in  the  Quar- 
terly Journal  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London, 
vol.  Ixiii.  pp.  470-514. 

Note  4,  p.  298. — A  large  number  of  facts  are  given 
by  W.  J.  Sollas  in  his  "Ancient  Hunters,"  p.   160. 

Note  5,  p.  299.— For  the  account  of  the  Galley 
Hill  skeleton  see  art.  by  Professor  George  Grant  Mac- 
Curdy  in  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  x.  (Nov.-Dec. 
191 1 )  pp.  322-331;  and  for  the  Ipswich  man  an 
article  by  the  same  in  Science,  March  29,  191 2,  pp. 
505-507. 

Note  6,  p.  301.—"  Primitive  Man  in  the  Somme 
Valley/'  American   Geologist,  vol.   xxii.  pp.  350-362. 

Note  7,  p.  304.— Professor  Edward  Hull's  recent 
volume,  "  Monog-raph  on  the  Sub-oceanic  Physiogra- 
phy of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean"  (London,  Stan- 
ford,  19 12). 

xNoTE  8.  p.  306.— See  A.  Tylor's  papers,  "  Qua- 
ternary Gravels,"  Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geolog- 
ical Society  of  London,  Feb.  1869,  pp.  57-100,  and 
"The  Amiens  Gravels,"  Proceedings  of  the  Geolog- 
ical  Society  of  London,    1867,  pp.    103-125.     A  full 


5i6  Appendix 

summary  of  M.  Ladriere's  investigations  will  be  found 
in  Geikie's  "Great  Ice  Age"   (3d  ed.),  pp.  629-635- 

Note  9,  p.  309. — For  more  details"  see  W.  J.  Sol- 
las,  "Ancient  Hunters,"  pp.  40-50. 

Note  10,  p.  311. — See  again  Upham's  observations 
upon  "  Primitive  Man  in  the  Somme  Valley,"  noted 
above. 

Note  it,  p.  312. — "Human  Remains  below  the 
Loess  of  Kiev,  Russia,"  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  i. 
(1902)   p.  276. 

Note  12,  p.  313. — Il^id.,  p.  277. 

Note  13,  p.  313. — Professor  Armaschevsky's  report 
prepared  for  the  International  Geological  Congress, 
held  in  St.  Petersburg  in  1897,  translated  in  Records 
of  the  Past,  vol.  i.  (1902)  pp.  275-278.  For  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  deposits  have  taken  place  see  his 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Geological  Committee  of  Russia," 
vol.  XV.  no.  I,  being  a  report  upon  the  geology  of 
Poltava,  Charkov,  and  Obojan,  1903.  The  first  part 
of  the  report  is  in  Russian,  but  the  second  part,  deal- 
ing specially  with  the  origin  and  distribution  of  the 
loess,  and  filling  sixty  quarto  pages,  is  in  German. 

Note  14,  p.  314. — A.  H.  Keane,  "Man  Past  and 
Present,"  p.  269. 

Note  15,  p.  316. — See  evidence  detailed  in  full  by 
George  Grant  MacCurdy  in  Records  of  the  Past, 
vol.  viii.   (1909)   pp.  33-38. 

Note  16,  p.  318. — Author's  "  Ice  Age  in  North 
America"   (5th  ed.),  chnp.  iii. 


Appendix  5 1 7 

Note  17,  p.  318. — For  fuller  details  and  references 
see  author's  "  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period,"  pp. 
267-293. 

Note  18,  p.  320. — A.  dc  Quatrefages,  "  Human 
Species,"  pp.   142-143. 

Note  19,  p.  321. — Lyell,  "Antiquity  of  Man,"  pp. 
y^-yg;  Huxlev,  "Man's  Place  in  Nature,"  pp.   168- 

187. 

Note  20,  p.  321. — Author's  "  Man  and  the  Gla- 
cial Period,"  pp.  275-278;  Sollas,  "Ancient  Hunters," 
pp.  45,   153,   162. 

Note  21,  p.  323. — "  Sgmatology  and  Man's  An- 
tiquity," by  G.  G.  MacCurdy  in  Records  of  the  Past, 
vol.  X.  (1911)  pp.  322-331;  see  Sollas,  "Ancient 
Hunters,"  pp.  146-167. 

Note  22,  p.  325. — W.  J.  Sollas,  "Ancient  Hunt- 
ers," p.  99. 

Note  23,  p.  330. — Ih'id.,  chap.  vi. 

chapter  X 

Note  1.  p.  334. — Warren  Upham's  collection  of 
facts  in  author's  "  Ice  Agt  in  North  America"  (5th 
ed.),  chap.  xix. 

Note  2,  336. — W.  J.  Sollas,  "Ancient  Hunters," 
p.  56. 

Note  3,  p.  338. — Ibid.,  pp.  63,  104,  112,  116; 
Prestwich,  "  Controverted  Questions  in  Geolo;j:y," 
pp.   49-80:   "The   Eolithic   Problem,"    MacCurdy   in 


5l8  Appendix 

Ajnerican   Anthropologist,   vol,    vii.    (1905)    pp.    425- 
480. 

Note  4,  p.  338. — Professor  H.  W.  Haynes,  Ap- 
pendix to  "  Man  and  the  Glacial  Period,"'  pp.  365- 
374;  also  in  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  v.  pp.  83-85. 

Note  5,  p.  340. — W.  J.  Sollas,  "Ancient  Hunt- 
ers," pp.  67-69. 

I 

CHAPTER    XI 

Note  i,  p.  348.— Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  "The 
Geographical  Distribution  of  Plants  and  Animals," 
vol.  i.  p.   154. 

Note  2,  p.  354.— A.  de  Quatrefages,  "The  Hu- 
man Species,"  pp.  175,   176. 

Note  3,  p.  357. — Author's  "Asiatic  Russia,"  pp. 
395,  510. 

Note  4,  p.  359. — "  Explorations  in  Turkestan," 
Expedition  of  1903,  edited  by  Raphael  Pumpellv,  pp. 
84-88. 

Note  5,  p.  361. — Author's  "Asiatic  Russia,"  pp. 
107-109,  512,  513;  D.  Gath  Whitley,  "Buried  Ele- 
phants in  the  Arctic  Regions,"  Gentleman's  Masra- 
zine,  Sept.  1894,  PP-  275-288;  also  his  "  Ivory  Islands 
in  the  Arctic  Ocean." 

Note  6,  p.  362. — Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  i.  pp. 
127,  128;  vol.  ii.  pp.  313-317:  art.  by  Frederick 
Bennett  Wright,  vol.  ii.  pp.  243-252. 


Jppcndix  519 

CHAPTER    XII 

Note  i,  p.  381. — Haeckel  "  Evolution  of  Man," 
vol.  ii.  p.   181. 

Note  2,  p.  381. — Mivart,  "  Man  and  Apes,"  p. 
144. 

Note  3,  p.  381. — Brinton,  "  Races  and  Peoples," 
p.  26. 

Note  4,  p.  383. — "  Man's  Place  in  Nature,"  ed. 
of  1901,  p.  143. 

Note  5,  p.  383. — Ihirl.,  pp.  106,  107. 

Note  6.  p.  384. — Ib'uL,  p.  146. 

Note  7,  p.  385. — Quoted  in  Darwin  "  Descent  of 
Man,"  pp.  201,  202. 

Note  8,  p.  387. — Wallace,  "  Darwinism,"  p.  454. 

Note  q,  p.  391. — W.  J.  Sollas,  "  On  the  Cranial 
and  Facial  Characters  of  the  Neandertal  Race," 
Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
London,  ser.  B,  vol.  cxcix.  pp.  281-339;  "Ancient 
Hunters,"  pp.  157  ff. 

Note  10,  p.  392. — "  The  Aryan  Question  and  Pre- 
historic IVIan,"  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  xxv'm.  (1890) 
p.  775. 

Note  ii,  p.  393. — Eugene  Dubois.  "Pithecanthro- 
pus Erectus,  cine  Menschenaehnliche  Uebergangsform 
aus  Java"  (Batavia,  1894);  "Pithecanthropus  Erec- 
tus, a  Form  from  the  Ancestral  Stock  of  Mankind," 
Smithsonian  Institution,  An.  Report,  1898,  pt.  i.  pp. 
445—449,  being  part  of  a  paper  read  before  the  Berlin 


520  Appendix 

Anthropological  Society,  December,  1896,  and  trans- 
lated from  the  Anatomischer  Anzeiger,  vol.  xii.  pp.  i- 
22;  O.  C.  Marsh,  Review  of  Dubois'  book  in  American 
Journal  of  Science,  3d  sen,  vol.  xlix.  (Feb.  1895)  pp. 
144-147;  O.  C  Marsh,  Abstract  of  Communication 
to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Washington, 
in  American  Journal  of  Science,  4th  ser.,  vol.  i.  (June, 
1896)  pp.  475-482;  also  in  Science,  new  ser.,  vol.  iii. 
(May  29,  1896)  pp.  789-793;  Prince  Kropotkin,  re- 
port on  Pithecanthropus,  in  LittelVs  Living  Age,  vol. 
ccix.  (April  11,  1896)  pp.  76-78,  taken  from  the 
Nineteenth  Century  for  1896;  D.  J.  Cunningham, 
"  Dr.  Dubois'  So-called  Missing  Link,"  abstract  of 
a  report  at  the  Royal  Dublin  Society  meeting  Janu- 
ary 23,  1895,  Nature,  vol.  li.  (Feb.  28,  1895)  pp. 
428,  429;  also  his  "Place  of  'Pithecanthropus'  on 
the  Genealogical  Tree,"  Nature,  vol.  liii.  p.  296;  ab- 
stract of  paper  by  Eugene  Dubois  reported  in  Na- 
ture, vol.  liii.  (Dec.  5,  1895)  pp.  115,  116;  also  his 
"  Place  of  '  Pithecanthropus '  in  the  Genealogical 
Tree,"  Nature,  vol.  liii.  pp.  245-247;  W.  J.  Sollas, 
"  Pithecanthropus  Erectus  and  the  Evolution  of  the 
Human  Race,"  Nature,  vol.  liii.  pp.   150,  151. 

Note  12,  p.  395. — "  Primary  Factors,"  1896,  pt. 
i.  chap.  ii. 

Note  13,  p.  395. — Views  of  Cope  summarized  by 
Professor  George  Macloskie,  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol. 
Ix.  p.  269. 

Note  14,  p.  396. — Franz  Boas,  "  Mind  of  Primi- 
tive Man,"  p.  20. 


Appendix  =^21 

Note  15.  p.  39O. — Ihid.,  p.  22. 
Note  ib,  p. 397. — //>/>/.,  p.  24. 
Note  17,  p.  397. — Ibid.,  p.  25. 

Note  18,  p.  398. — "  Man's  Place  in  Nature,"  ed. 
of  1 901,  p.  203. 

Note  19,  p.  398. — "  Darwinism,"  p.  82. 

Note  20,  p.  399. — •"  On  the  Mammals  and  Win- 
ter Birds  of  East  Florida,  with  an  examination  of 
certain  assumed  specific  characters  in  Birds,  and  a 
sketch  of  the  Bird  Faunae  of  Eastern  North  Amer- 
ica," published  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Museum  of 
Comparative  Zoology  at  Harvard  College,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  in  1871. 

Note  21,  p.  402. — Wallace,  "Darwinism,"  p.  458. 

Note  22,  p.  402. — Ibid.,  pp.  69-71. 

chapter    XIII 

Note  i,  p.  408. — See  author's  ''  Scientific  Aspects 
of  Christian  Evidences,"  pp.  63-66. 

Note  2,  p.  411. — See  Enclclop.Tdia  Britannica.  9th 
ed.,  art.  "  Biology." 

Note  3,  p.  417. — "  Mental  Evolution  in  Man," 
1889. 

Note  4,  p.  420. — Ibid.,  p.  208. 

Note  5,  p.  422. — Atlantic  Monthly,  Feb.  1892,  p. 
184. 

Note  6,  p.  434. — Franz  Boas,  "  Mind  of  Primi- 
tive Man,"  pp.  7,  8. 


522  Appendix. 

CHAPTER    XIV 

Note  i,  p.  438. — "  History  of  Creation,"  English 
translation,  vol.  i.  pp.  37,  38. 

Note  2,  p.  439. — "  Veracity  of  the  Hexateuch,"  pp. 
209,  210. 

Note  3,  p.  441. — A.  de  Quatrefages,  "  The  Hu- 
man Species,"  p.   174. 

Note  4,  p.  443. — "  The  Pentateuch  Vindicated 
from  the  Aspersions  of  Bishop  Colenso,"  p.  128  foot- 
note. 

Note  5,  p.  445. — He  is  called  in  i  Chron.  xxiv.  20 
a  son  of  Amram,  the  ancestor  of  Moses;  for  Shubael 
and  Shebuel  are  in  all  probability  mere  orthographic 
variations  of  the  same  name. 

Note  6,  p.  454. — In  Ruth  iv.  17  Ruth's  child  is 
called  "  a  son  born  to  Naomi,"  who  was  Ruth's 
mother-in-lav/  and  not  even  an  ancestor  of  the  child 
in  the  strict  sense.  Zerubbabel  is  called  familiarly 
the  son  of  Shealtiel  (Ezr.  iii.  2;  Hag.  i.  i),  and  is  so 
stated  to  be  in  the  genealogies  of  both  Matt.  i.  12  and 
Luke  iii.  27,  though  in  reality  he  was  his  nephew 
(i  Chron.  iii.  17-19).  That  descent  as  reckoned  in 
genealogies  is  not  always  of  actual  parentage  appears 
from  the  comparison  of  the  ancestry  of  our  Lord  as 
given  by  Matthew  and  by  Luke. 

Note  7,  p.  464. — The  number  varies  in  different 
manuscripts. 

Note  8,  p.  467. — A.  de  Quatrefages,  "  The  Hu- 
man Species,"  pp.   175,   176. 


NoTK  o.  p.  496. — Author's  "  Scientific  Confirma- 
tions of  OKI  Testament  History,"  chaps,  vii.-xi. 

Not  I-  10.  p.  471. — Bulletin  of  the  Geolocrical  So- 
ciety of  America,  vol.  \iii.  pp.  127-138,  and  530;  au- 
thor's "Asiatic  Russia."  pp.  75-77;  <'i^so  his  "Scien- 
tific Confirmations."  pp.  207,  211,  305. 

Note  it,  p.  472. — Bulletin  of  the  Geoloi^ical  So- 
ciety of  America,  vol.  xiii.  pp.  127-138;  author's 
"Scientific  Confirmations,"  pp.   315,  316. 

Note  12,  p.  472. — William  M.  Davis,  "  Explora- 
tions in  Turkestan"  (Carneizic  Institution,  Washincj- 
ton.    1905),  pp.  28-36. 

CHAPTER    XV 

Note  i,  p.  479.— Alfred  Russel  Wallace,  "Island 
Life,"  p.  212. 

Note  2,  p.  479. — Charles  D.  Walcott,  "  Geologic 
Time;  as  indicated  by  the  Sedimentaiy  Rocks  of 
North  America,"  Proceedinp;s  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  vol.  xlii.  pp. 
168-169. 

Note  3,  p.  488. — Sir  Joseph  Prestwich,  "  Geol- 
ogy," vol.  i.  p.  232;  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  "Principles 
of  Geology,"  vol.  i.  p.  I33- 

Note  4,  p.  491. — Quarterly  Journal  of  Geological 
Society.  Aui:r.   1887;  "  Gcoloey."  vol.  ii.  pp.  441-535. 


524  Appendix 

IMPLEMENTS    DEEMED    TO    BE    OF    GREAT    AGE    FROM 
STUDY    OF    THE    PATIXATED    SURFACES 

Since  the  body  of  this  work  was  in  press  there  has 
come  into  my  hands  a  paper  of  Professor  N.  H. 
Winchell  (to  be  published  in  the  Records  of  the  Past, 
Washington,  vol.  xi.  pt.  iv,  July-August,  191 2)  de- 
scribing a  collection  of  artifacts  gathered  by  the  late 
Mr.  J.  V.  B rower  from  an  area  in  eastern  Central 
Kansas  lying  outside  the  glacial  boundary.  Mr.  Win- 
chell's  study  of  them,  however,  has  convinced  himi 
that  thev  are  of  the  same  age  with  those  that  have 
been  found  connected  with  the  glacial  deposits.  This 
conclusion  is  reached  not  only  by  the  study  of  the 
forms  of  the  implements,  but  especially  by  attention 
to  the  extent  of  the  patina  upon  their  surface.  The 
artifacts  under  consideration  *'  are  fashioned  from  a 
blue-gray  cliert,  or  from  a  yellowish-gray  chert  which 
has  resulted  from  it  by  weathering.  .  .  .  Usually  from 
exposure  these  artifacts  have  acquired  a  patina  consist- 
ing of  a  smooth  glossy  surface,  with  a  thin  scale  of 
altered  rock  immediately  below  the  gloss.  .  .  .  Fre- 
quently one  side  of  a  flat  specimen  is  more  patinated 
than  the  other.  All  degrees  of  weathering  and  de- 
cay can  be  found,  so  that  it  seems  the  fabrication  of 
rude  artifacts  continued  from  paLeolithic  time  in 
Kansas  to  the  neolithic.  On  the  other  hand  can  be 
found  in  the  same  region,  and  sometimes  on  the  same 
sites,  implements  of  higher  culture  which  are  not 
weathered  or  patinated  ;  and  on  closer  and  wider  ex- 
amination it  is  found  that  this  hiizher  culture  is  itself 


Af^pcndix  525 

so  old  that  the  specimens  that  manifest  it  have  also 
acquired  a  semi-fi;loss,  indicatinj^'  that  they  have  also 
been  exposed,  but  for  a  shorter  time,  to  the  same  de- 
structive airents  as  the  paheoliths.  In  many  cases  the 
implements  that  show  this  higher  culture  are  quite 
like  those  of  the  neolithic  people  of  post-Glacial  time. 
.  .  .  The  culture  of  the  palaeoliths,  however,  is  mark- 
edly different  from  and  ruder  than  that  of  these  semi- 
patinated  specimens.  These  semi-patinated  specimens 
embrace  implem.ents  known  as  knives,  points,  scrapers, 
etc.,  all  of  which  are  excluded  from  the  palaeolithic 
o:roup  by  the  simple  fact  that  they  are  never  found 
carrying  palaeolithic  patina,  and  by  the  significant  fact 
that  patinated  palaeolithic  implements  were  used,  in 
many  cases,  for  the  making  of  the  specimens  of  higher 
culture.  The  different  dates  of  the  two  chippings  are 
perfectly  evident  on  the  same  specimen  by  reason  of 
the  natina  on  the  one  and  its  absence  on  the  other." 
It  is  worthy  of  note  also  in  this  connection  that 
close  study  of  the  Newcomerstow^n  implement  reveals 
to  Professor  VVinchell  a  degree  of  patination  corre- 
sponding to  that  of  these  oldest  implements  in  Mr, 
Brower's  collection.  Professor  Winchell's  conclusions, 
also,  correspond  with  those  of  Dr.  W.  Allen  Sturge 
of  Mildenhall  (Suffolk),  England,  detailed  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Prehistoric  Society  of  East  Anglia 
for  1908,  1909,  and  19 10,  thus  greatly  increasing  the 
evidence  of  the  early  date  of  prehistoric  man  and  of 
his  wide  distribution  over  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
We  cannot,  however,  accept  Dr.   Sturge's  conclusions 


526  Appendix 

concerning  the  actihTl  nge  of  these  implements,  since 
he  follows  Croll's  estimates  of  ^rlacial  time  from  astro- 
nomical evidence  without  proper  acquaintance  with 
the  accumulation  of  geolo<i;ical  evidence  made  since 
the  publication  of  CroU's  theory.  Estimates  made 
from  patinated  surfaces  of  the  implements  can  at 
present  relate  onh-  to  the  relative  age. 

DESCRIPTIVE     NOTE    BY    N.    H.    WINCHELL. 

This  specimen  has  the  same  shape  as  the  Newcomers- 
town  palaeolith  cf  Ohio,  but  is  a  little  larger.  It  is  of 
blue-gray  chert,  abindant  in  the  Upper  Carboniferous  for- 
mation of  the  Kansas  valley.  Its  form  is  not  uncommon 
among  the  specimens  collected  there,  but  few  are  as  per- 
fect as  this.  The  long  edges  and  the  large  end  show  a 
battering  which  has  rej-ulted  from  use,  indicating  that  the 
implement  had  reached  the  state  cf  completion.  Its  ^hape 
and  size  warrant  the  name  celt.  The  facets  show  the  fea- 
ture that  is  comm.on  en  surfaces  of  forced  fracture,  i.e.,  an 
undulatory,  circular,  alternation  of  elevation  and  depression, 
the  size  of  the  waves  increasing  with  distance  from  the 
ictus-point,  and  furnishing  a  guide  to  the  place  of  the  bulb 
of  percussion,  although  such  bulb  may  have  been  destroyed 
by  the  later  chipping.  The  surfaces  are  numbered,  begin- 
ning with   the  oldest,  viz. 

(i)  Has  a  thick  patina  of  a  dirty  white  color,  but  no 
gloss.  It  is  seen  on  one  side  and  one  edge.  There  is  no 
demonstration  that  this  is  artificial,  and  it  may  date  from 
the  time  of  crntact  with  the  parent  rock.  If  so  it  may  be 
called  prepaUeol'ith'ic. 

(2)  Has  a  distinct,  brown  patina  and  a  dull  gloss.  It 
is  seen  on  one  side,  near  the  center,  ou.tlined  by  the  aretes 
formed  by  the  later  chipping,  and  at  the  small  end.  This  is 
distinctly    an    artificial    fracture    surface,    since    it    shows    the 


528  Appendix 

wavy  contours  both  at  the  point  and  at  the  lower  right 
hand  of  the  larger  area.  The  thickness  of  the  patina  is 
about  that  of  writing  paper  It  indicates  early  palaeolithic 
time. 

(3)  Is  found  only  on  one  edge.  It  has  a  nearly  white 
patina  similar  to  No.  (i),  and  it  appears  older  than  No. 
(2),   having  no   gloss.     It  is   also  probably  early  paLeolithic. 

(4)  The  most  of  the  specimen  is  covered  by  No.  (4).  It 
is  of  the  color  of  the  interior  of  the  specimen,  blue-gray. 
There  is  in  some  places  a  tendency  to  a  white  patination, 
but  in  general  the  age  of  this  surface  is  indicated  only  by 
the  glossiness  which  reflects  the  sunlight  in  all  directions 
as  the  specimen  is  turned  about.  It  is  a  characteristic  in- 
dication of  paheoUthic  date,  although  a  similar  glossiness,  of 
less  pronounced  character,  is  found  on  many  artifacts  of 
early  neolithic  date.  The  specimen,  as  it  is,  dates  certainly 
from   pre-Wisconsin,    and   probably   from   pre-Kansas   time. 

August   15,   1912. 


INDEX 

Abbeville,   France,   glacial   man   in,  290,  291,  293. 

Abbott  en   amount  of  silt   in  the   Mississippi   River,   181. 

Abbott,   C.    C,    palaeolithic   discoveries   at   Trenton,   219  ff. 

Acheulean  stage  of  the   paleolithic   period,  326. 

Adour  River,   303  f. 

Agassiz,  Alexander,  on   the   geology  of   America,    18. 

Agglutinative   languages,   81  ff.,   90,   352,   502  ff. 

Alexander,   mentioned,   35,   68. 

Algonquins,   distribution  of,   138. 

Allen,  J.   A.,  on  variations   cf   animals   in   Florida,   399  f. 

Alps,  the,  21. 

Altai  Mountains,  glaciers  of  the,  359. 

Amenhotep    III,   mentioned,    33. 

American    languages,    83,    98,    129. 

Amiens,   France,   glacial   man   at,  290,   291  ff. 

Amu   Daria,  the,   367. 

Anau,   59  ff.,  86. 

Andes  Mountains,  21 ;   glaciation  of,  217. 

Andrews  on  the   age  of  lake  dwellings,   no. 

Animals  associated  with  prehistoric  man,  238  ff.,  248,  265, 
287  f.,  293  f.,  296,  309,  313,  314,  319,  323,  324,  327  f-. 
332,  333,  346  ff.;  distribution  of,  287  f.,  293  f.,  301,  303, 
304,  343 ;  instinct  of,  423  f. ;  limitations  of  their  intel- 
ligence, 424  f.;   of  the  Tertiary  period,  23,  250  f. 

Ants,  brains  of,  398. 

Appalachian   Mountains,   20. 

Aral-Caspian  depression,  355;  former  climate  of,  370; 
former  fertility  of,   367  ff.;   geolog\'  of,   57  f. 

Armaschevsky,    P.,    discovers    implements    at    Kiev,    311  ff. 

Art,  of  neolithic   man,   125  f.;   of   palaeolithic   man,  330. 

Aryan  languages,  75  ff.,  85  f.,  90,  352. 

Arve,  the,   305. 


530  Index 

Asia,  Centra],  centers  of  glaciation  in,  358  f.;  climate  of, 
after  the  deluge,  474;  glacial  history  of,  356  ff.;  water 
supply  of,  367  f.,   370. 

Asia,  Central   and  Western,  original   home  of   man,   351  ff. 

Asia,  Southern,  original  home  of  animals  associated  with 
man,   350. 

Asiatics,   hair  of,   iii. 

Assouan,   quarry  at,  49  f. 

Assurbanipal,  42. 

Aurignacian   stage  of   the   palaeolithic   period,    330  f. 

Australia,  uniformity  of  language  in,   99. 

Australians  resemble  Mousterian   man,   330;    skulls  of,   391. 


Babbitt,  Miss  Franc  E.,  palaeolithic  discoveries  at  Little 
Falls,  Minn.,  229. 

Babylonian  chronology,  499  f. 

Babylonians,  architecture  of,  46;  astronomy  of,  46;  lan- 
guage of,   501  f. ;    literature  on,   500;    writing  of,  46. 

Bachler  finds  stone  implements   at  Wildkirchli,   314. 

Balk,   58. 

Barbour,  E.  H.,  on  the  Nebraska  loess  man,  235;  on  vol- 
canic ash,  512  f. 

Bardon    and    Bouyssonie,    discoveries   by,    323  f. 

Bartlett,   S.   C,   quoted  on  sex,  439. 

Basques,  the,   117  ff.;    language  of,  83,   117;    skulls  of,    ii8. 

Baum  mounds,  146. 

Baumes-Chaudes,   discoveries   in   cave   of,    115. 

Bear   River,  272. 

Bears,  .migration  of,  348. 

Becker,  George  F.,  on  a  stone  mortar  found  under  Table 
Mountain,  259  f.;  quoted  on  the  recentness  of  the  with- 
drawal of  glacial   ice,   194. 

Behring  Strait,  a  favorable  route  for  migration  from  Asia 
to  Alaska,   134. 

Bell,  Robert,  cited,  195. 


Index  531 

Bible,  the,  can  be  translated  into  every  language,  431; 
chronology  of,  442  fF. ;  evidence  of,  relating  to  the  or- 
igin  and   anti(iuit\    of   man,  437  ff. 

Biddenhani,    Eng.,    palaeolithic    tliscoveries    at,    296. 

Bingham,  Hiram,  discovers  human  remains  near  Cuzco, 
Peru,   247. 

Black    Mary's,    Eng.,    palaeolithic    discovery    at,    296. 

Blumenbach's  classification   of  man,   380. 

Boas,  Franz,  quoted  on  racial  differences,  396;  on  the  an- 
cient civilization  of  the  Old   \^'orld,   and   the   New,  433. 

Bolt,  Thomas,  on  decay  of  rocks   in   Nicaragua,  207. 

Boule,  M.,  on  eoliths,  339  f. 

Bourgeois,  Abbe,  discoveries   at  Theney,   335. 

Bouyssonie   and   Bardon,   discoveries  by,   323  f. 

Bowlders,   158,   159,   i6o,   163,  210. 

Bowman,  Isaiah,  glacial  investigations  in  South  America, 
217,    247  ff. 

Brachycephaly,  definition  of,  112;  in  Bosnia,  119;  in  the 
Alps,   113;    in  Russia,   119. 

Breuil,    Abbe,    discredits    artificial    character   of    eoliths,    340  f 

Brixham,  Eng.,  discoveries  at,  318  f. 

Brooks,  C.  W.,  on  Japanese  wrecks  on  American  shores,   134. 

Brower,   J.    V.,   collects    artifacts    in    Central    Kansas,    524. 

Bruce,  skull   of,   390. 

Brugsch,   Dr.,   quoted   on   the   Fellahin  of  Lower   Egypt,   66  f. 

Burrows,  R.,   explorations   in   Crete,   31. 

Butterflies,   distribution    of,   428. 

Caesar,    mentioned,    35. 

Cahokia  Mcund,   142. 

Calaveras   skull,   261  ff. 

Camel,   original    home   of,    349. 

Canaanites,  72. 

Canstadt  skull,   320,    389  f. 

Caspian   Sea,   57  f. 

Caucasians,   distribution   of,   in   Asia,   354. 


532  Index 

Cave  bear,   314. 

Caves,  prehistoric  remains  in,  314,  316,   318  ff. 

Chamberlin,  T.  C,  on  transportation  of  glacial  material,  162. 

Chellean,   stage  of   the   palaeolithic  period,   326. 

Chelles,  France,  glacial  man  in,  290,  295. 

Chillicothe,   Ohio,   mounds   at,   143  ff. 

China,  date  of  authentic  history  of,  30. 

Chinese  language,   79  ff. 

Chronicles,   genealogies  of,  447  ff. 

Chu   River,   367. 

Civilization,  prominent  names  connected  with,  434,  436; 
sources   of,   495  f. 

Clay,  Albert  T.,  quoted  on  the  art  and  culture  of  the  Baby- 
lonians,  45. 

Coleman,  A.  P.,  on  the  interglacial  episode  at  Toronto,  212  f. 

Colenso,  Bishop,  reply  to,  443  ff. 

Columbia  River,  252 ;  mouth  of,  center  for  dispersion  of  In- 
dian tribes,  135. 

Columbus,   mentioned,   36. 

Combe-Capelle,   France,   discovery   at,   324. 

Commerce,  prehistoric,  108. 

Commont,  M.,  on  eoliths,  339;  on  the  Chellean  implements, 
326 ;   palaeolithic  discoveries  of,  291  f. 

Conners,  Mr.,  palaeolithic  discovery  of,  296. 

Cope  on  the  brain  of  Pithecanthropus,   395 ;    on  classification 

of,  395- 
Coptic  language,  74. 
Creation,  mechanical  theory  of,  407  f. 
Cresswell  Crags,  Eng.,  discoveries  in  caves  at,   319. 
Crete,   archaeology  of,   31;    archaeological   literature  on,   498  f. 
Croll,  J.,  theory  of  the  cause  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  174  f.,  216. 
Cro-Magnon   race,   115  ff. 
Cuvier's  classification  of  man,  380. 
Cuzco,  Peru,  human   remains  near,  247;   geology  of,  247  f. 

Dana,  Charles  D.,  estimates  of  geological  time,  8 ;  on  the 
formation  of  the  Appalachian   Mountains,  20. 


Index  S^.^ 

Darwin,  Charles,  and  the  origin  of  species,  372;  assumed  too 
slow  a  rate  of  variation  of  species,  398 ;  estimates  of 
geological  time,  2,  478 ;  has  not  solved  the  mystery  of 
creation,  406;  objection  to  his  minute  variations  in  spe- 
cies, 400  f. ;  on  sex,  440;  on  the  ant's  brain,  398;  on 
the  effect  of  the  Bible  on  savage  races,  431  f. 

Darwin,  Francis,  on  the  way  to  determine  the  difference  be- 
tween   the    lowest    plants    and    animals,  413. 

Darwin,   Sir   George  H.,  estimates  of  geological   time,  479. 

Davis,  William  M.,  on  moraines  of  the  Tian  Shan  Mount- 
ains, 359  f.;   reports  terraces  on  the  Caspian,  472. 

Dawkins,   Boyd,   explores  cave    at   Wookey   Hole,   Eng.,    319. 

De  Sarzec,  discoveries  at  Telloh,  499. 

Deer,   distribution   of,   349. 

Deluge,  the,  date  of,  474. 

Demavend   Mountain,  height  cf,  57. 

Denmark,   forests   of,    106;    kitchen   middens   of,    105  f. 

Deschutes  River,   253. 

Diller,  Mr.,  on   a  cinder  cone  in  California,  284. 

Divine  immanency,  doctrine  of,  408  ff. 

Dolichocephaly,  characteristic  of  the  prehistoric  European, 
113  f.,    118  f;    definition   of,    112;    in    France,    114  f. 

Dolmens,  122  ff. 

Dordogne,   France,  cave  man  in,  323  f. 

Dubois,    Eugene,    discovers    Pithecanthropus    erectus,    393. 

Eg\'pt,   antiquity   of,  47,    50  f. ;    language  of,   501  f. 

Elamites,  42. 

Elbe  River,  303. 

Elephants,  distribution  of,  349  f. 

Elevation  of  land,  at  close  of  Tertiary  period,  i68  ff.,  301  ff., 

343  ff.,    486,    488;     relation    to    distribution    of    animals, 

301  f.,   304,   344  ff.;   of  man,   171  f.,   304. 
Elsenz  River,  309. 

Engeln,  O.   D.  von,  on   rate  of  melting  of  glacial  ice,   167. 
Engis   skull,   u6,   320. 


534  "  Index 

Eoliths,   337  ff. 

Esker  terraces,  294,  308. 

Eskimos,  236  f. 

Etruscan   art,   103. 

Euphrates  Valley,  date  of  man's  history  in,  494;  early  his- 
tory in  the,  33  f.,  38  ff. 

Europe,  complexion  of  the  races  of,  iioff. ;  in  the  Tertiary 
period,  301  ff.,  346;  origin  of  the  races  of,  chapter  on, 
102-127;   skulls  of,   112  ff. 

Europeans,  hair  of,   iii;   skulls  of,   112  ff. 

Evans,  Arthur  J.,  explorations  in   Crete,  31. 

Evans,  Sir  John,  on  the  discoveries  in  the  Somme  Valley,  291. 

Evolution,  bearing  of,  on  man's  appearance,  7;  theories  of, 
6,   373  ff.,  407- 

Exodus,  date  of  the,  48. 

Ezra,  genealogies  of,  445  f. 

Fellahin,  the,  66  f. 

Fiords,   168  f.,   171,   303  f.,  486. 

Floods  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch,  243  ff. 

Fort  Ancient,   143. 

Fort  Hill,   143. 

Fraipont,  Professor,   quoted  on  the  rate  of  development  from 

apes    to    man,    392;     and    Lohest    discover    skeletons    at 

Spy,  321  ff, 
Frere,  John,  palaeolithic  discoveries  of,  297. 

Galley   Hill,  Eng.,   geology  of,   298. 

Galley  Hill   skeleton,  297  f. 

Garden   of  Eden,   location  of,   442. 

Gaudry,   M.,  291. 

Geer,  Baron   de,  on   a   post-glacial   lake  bed   in   Sweden,   193. 

Genealogies  of  the  Bible   are  frequently   abbreviated,  444  ff. ; 

not   to   be   used    for   chronological    purposes,   444. 
Genesis  i.  conforms  to  modern  science,  437  ff. 
Genesis  v.   and  xi.,  genealogies  of,  not  complete,  455  ff. 


Iniicx  535 

Genghis  Khan,   58  f,   353. 

Geological   time,   8,  478  ff. ;    literature  on   estimates   (rf,   497. 

German  Ocean,  elevation  of,  302. 

Gilbert,  G.  K.,  on  the  rate  rf  post-glacial  elevation,  187;  on 
the  geological  history  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  278  ff. 

Gilder,   Robert   F.,   finds'  human   bones   at   Omaha,   Neb.,   235. 

Gizeh,  pyramid  of,  49. 

Glacial  boundary   in   Europe,   i6o;   in   North   America,   163. 

Glacial   debris,  depth  of,   159,   163. 

Glacial  epoch,  cause  of,  22,  486  f,;  characteristics  of,  305,334, 
370;  date  of,  174  ff.;  of  the  close,  494;  depression  of 
land  at  the  close  of,  469  ff. ;  effect  of,  on  Central  Asia, 
368  f.,  474  ff. ;  on  drainage,  24,  164  ff.;  on  land  levels, 
22,  168  ff.,  351;  extent  of,  in  America,  162  f.,  490;  in 
Europe,  i6of.,  490;  in  Southern  Hemisphere,  216  f.; 
length  of,  195  ff.,  334,  480,  491  f.;  significance  of,  chap- 
ter on,   157-217.  o 

Glacial    ice,   depth   of,    159,    160,    162. 

Glacial  man,  in  Central  Asia,  chapter  on,  pp.  334-370;  re- 
mains of,  in  Europe,  chapter  on,  290-333. 

Glacier   Bay,   former   extent  of   ice   in,   204  f. 

Glaciers  in  Central  Asia,  164. 

Granville,    Ohio,   mound    at,    148. 

Gray,  Asa,  quoted  on  California  wood,  286. 

Gray,  Dr.,  on   variations  of  bear's   skulls,   403. 

Great  Salt  Lake,  278  ff. 

Green,  William  Henry,  article  by,  on  "  Primitive  Chronol- 
og>',"   reprinted,  443  ff. 

Greenland,   geology  of,   344  f. ;    movement  of   ice  in,  491. 

Greenland    glaciers,    movement    of,   201. 

Haeckel  (juoted  on  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  437. 

Hale,    Horatio,    on    conditions    favoring    growth    of    different 

languages,   97  f. ;   on   linguistic  stocks    in  (Megnn,  84;   en 

origin  of  the  various  languages,  91. 
Hallstatt,    Austria,    archaeology   of,    103  f. 


536  Index 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  on  a  supposed  danger  in  modern  sci- 
ence, 406. 

Harmer,   F.   W.,  on   Scandinavian   ice   in   England,   295  f. 

Harrison,   B.,  discovers  chipped  flints   at   Ightam,   337. 

Hauser,   O.,   discovery  by,  in   Dordogne,   France,   324. 

Haynes,  Mr.,  explorations   at  Nippur,  43,  499. 

Helin,   Belgium,   geology  of,   308;    implements  found   at,   311. 

Helland  on  the  motion  of  the   Greenland  ice  sheet,  200. 

Herz  and  Tolmatschow  discover  a  perfect  specimen  of  mam- 
moth,   362. 

Heys,  Messrs.  Elliott  and  Matthew,  discover  skeleton  at 
Galley  Hill,  297. 

Heyse,  K.   W.   L.,   "  ding-dong "  theory  of,   505. 

Hicks,   Professor,   on   Raccoon   Creek,    180  f. 

Hilprecht,   H.   V.,   discoveries   at  Nippur,  499. 

Himalayas,  the,  21.  . 

Hindu    Kush   Mountains,    368. 

Hippopotamus,    347  f. 

Hoist,  N.  O.,  glacial  discoveries  near  Malmo,  213  f.;  on  a 
chalk  bowlder,   159. 

Homer,  poems  of,  31. 

Homo   heidelbergensis,   309. 

Hopewell    mounds,    145. 

Horse,  distribution  of,  348  f. ;   in  America,  251. 

Hcxne,   Eng.,   palaeolithic   discoveries   at,  297. 

Hubbs,  Paul  K.,  finds  relics  under  Table  Mountain,  256  f. 

Hudson   River,    geology   of,   486. 

Humphreys  on   amount  of  silt  in  the  Mississippi   River,   181. 

Hunn,   E.    R.,    account   of    a    language   invented    by   children, 

93  ff. 

Huntington,  Ellsworth,  on  moraines  of  the  Tian  Shan 
Mountains,  359  f. 

Hurlbut,   Rev.,   on   Algonquin    verbs,    82. 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  on  spontaneous  generation,  411;  on  the  Ne- 
anderthal  skull,   321 ;   quoted  on  the  brains  of  man   and 


Index  537 

apes,   383,    385;    on   the   classificatinn   of   mammals,   384; 
on  the  rate  of  development  of  man  from  apes,   392. 
Hyrcania    described,    355  f. 

Ightam,   Eng.,  chipped   flints   discovered   at,   337. 

lUinoisan   deposits,    208  f. 

Indian   corn,    origin    of,    137. 

Indians,  American,  antiquity  of,  154  f- 1  culture  of,  130; 
customs  of,  130  f.;  language  of,  83,  98,  129;  migration 
from  Eastern  Asia,  134;  migration  in  America,  138  f.; 
mode  of  reckoning  blood  relationship,  131  if.;  origin 
of,  chapter  on,  128-156;  relation  to  the  Mound  Build- 
ers, 141  ff.;  to  the  Tamils,  84,   131,  133- 

Ipswich,    Eng.,    geology   of,   299. 

Ipswich   skeleton,   298  f. 

Java,   lava    deposits  of,    393. 
Jordan    Valley,    geology   of,   473. 

Kakimna's    Treatise    on    Manners,    51  ff. 

Kansan    deposits,    206  ff. 

Kansas,  artifacts  found  in,  524  f. 

Kaschenko,   Professor,   finds    remains   of   man    and   mammoth, 

313  f- 
Keil    assumes   two   Amrams,   452  f. 
Keith,    Dr.,    on    the    Ipswich    skeleton,    299. 
Kemp,  J.   F.,   finds  two   mcrtars   in   Southern   Oregon,   261. 
Kent's   Hole,   Eng.,   discoveries   at,   318  f. 
Keyes,    Charles    R.,    reports    a    terrace    at    Soudak,   472. 
Khufu,    50. 

Kiev,   Russia,   geolog\-   of,    311  f.;    implements   found   at,   312, 
King,    Clarence,   on    a    pestle    found    under    Table    Mountain, 

260  f. 
Kitchen   middens,   105  f. 
Knossos,   discoveries   in,   31. 
Kudur-Mabug,    72. 


538  Index 

Kurtz,   M.    A.,   finds   the   Nampa  image,  266. 

La    Chapelle   aux    Saints,   skulls   discovered   near,    323  f.,   328. 

Labyrinth,    the,    31. 

Ladriere,  on  the  Somme  gravel  deposits,  306. 

Lake   Agassiz,    188  ff. 

Lake  Bonneville,  280  ff. 

Lake    dwellings,    107  ff. 

Lane,  A.  C.,  on  the  stagnant  ice  of  Siberia,  358. 

Language,  origin  of,  504  ff. ;  relation  to  modern  civilization, 
430  ff. 

Languages,  diversifications  of,  96  f.;  invented  by  children, 
91  ff. 

Lansing,    Kansas,    skeleton    found    at,    230. 

Latin  language,  88  f. 

Laugerie  Basse,  discoveries  near,   115. 

Lava  deposits  in  Western  United  States,  240  ff.,  252  ff., 
272  ff. 

Le  Conte,  Joseph,  quoted  on  the  transition  from  the  Silu- 
rian   to    the    Devonian    formation,    19. 

Les    Eyzies,    discoveries   near,    115. 

Lesquereux  on  the   age  of   the   deep   placers,   265. 

Lincoln,   Abraham,    influence   of,    37. 

Linnaeus'   classification   of   man,    380. 

Little    Falls,    Minn.,    palaeolithic    discoveries    at,    228  f. 

Little   Miami  River,   mounds  on,    143,    147. 

Locke  on  the  origin  of  thought,  414  f. 

Loess,   231  ff. 

Logan,    Sir   William,   on    recentness   of    glaciation,    195. 

Lohest    and    Fraipont   discover   skeletons    at   Spy,   321  ff. 

London,  built  on   a  gravel  terrace,  296. 

Loveland   palaeolith,  228. 

Lugal-zaggisi,    72,    500. 

Luther,   Martin,   mentioned,   35. 

Lyddeker   on   classification   of   Pithecanthropus,    395. 

Lyell,    Sir    Charles,    291;    estimate    of    geological    time,    478; 


Index  539 

on  tlie  London  terrace,  296;  on  the  rate  of  continental 
elevation,  488;  on  the  recession  of  Niagara  Falls,  178; 
theory    of    uniformitarianism,    14  ff.  , 

Lvs  River,   304;   geology  of,   311. 

MacEnery,   Rev.   J.,   discoveries   at   Kent's   Hole,   Eng.,   318. 
McCiee,  \V  J,  estimate  of  geological  time,  497. 
Machairotlus,    319. 
McTarnahan,   M.   C,  finds  a  mortar  under  Table   Mountain, 

259. 
Madisonville  palaeolith,   228. 

Magdalenian    stage   of    the    palaeolithic    period,    333. 
Mammoth,    260  ff. ;    found    in    Siberia,    313  f. 
Man,    advances    over    the    other    Primates,    386  f. ;     and    the 
lava    beds    of    the    Pacific    Coast,    chapter    on,    250-289; 
and    the    mammoth,    360  ff.;     body    cf,    adapted    to    his 
mind,  404  f. ;  classifications  of,  380,  384;   compared  n'ith 
the    anthropoid    apes,     380  ff. ;     definitions    of,    10  f.,    91, 
426;    diversification   of   the   races   of,   372  f.,   376;    in   the 
Glacial   epoch,   chapter  on,   218-249;    mental   powers  of, 
379,    416  ff.,    426  f. ;    prehistoric,    culture    of,    288  f.;  pre- 
historic,   not    anatomically    different    from    modern    man, 
395  f.;   unity  of  the  races  of,  371  f. 
Manetho,  47. 

Manouvrier    en    bearing   of    physical    characteristics   on    men- 
tal,  396  f. 
Maracanda,   58. 

Marr,   J.    E.,    en   the   geology   of    Ipswich,    Eng.,   299  f. 
Marietta,  Ohio,  fortifications  at,  142. 
Mattison,    Mr.,    discovers    the    Calaveras   skull,    261  ff. 
Mauer,   geology  of,   308;    human  jaw   discovered    at,   309. 
Mediterranean    Sea,   304. 
Menes,    66,   434,  436. 

Mental    capacity    of   neolithic    man,    122  ff. 
Merv,    58. 
Mesopotamia,    mentioned,    72. 


540  Index 

Mesvinlan   stage,  of  the   palaeolithic  period,   325. 

Metz,  C.  L.,  finds  palaeoliths  at  Loveland  and  Madisonville, 
Ohio,   228. 

Middendorff  on  the  mammoth  in  Siberia,  361. 

Mills,  W.  C,  discoveries  in  Baum  mounds,  146 ;  finds 
palaeolithic    implement    at    Newcomerstown,    226. 

Minos,  not  a  fabulous   monster,   31. 

Mississippi    River,    amount   of    silt    in,    i8i. 

Mississippi    Valley,   mounds    in,    141  ff. 

Moller,    Hermann,    Semitic    and    Aryan    grammar  by,    502. 

Mohammed,   mentioned,   36. 

Moir,   J.   Reid,   discovers   skeleton   at   Ipswich,   Eng.,   298. 

Mongolians,   distribution   of,   354. 

Monoliths,    125. 

Mx)orehead,  Warren  K.,  discoveries  in  Hopewell  mounds, 
145. 

Morgan,  Lewis  H.,  on  the  customs  of  the  American  In- 
dians, 130  £.,  140;  on  their  mode  of  reckoning  rela- 
tionship,   133  f. 

Morlot,   on   the    age   of   lake   dwellings,    109  f. 

Mortillet,  G.  de,  on  the  chipped  flints  found  at  Otta,  335  f.; 
at  Puy  Courny,  337, 

Moses,   434;    qualified    to    make    correct   genealogies,    460  f. 

Mound   Builders,   141  ff. 

Mousterian    stage   of   the   palaeolithic   period,    326  ff. 

Miiller,   Sophus,   on  the   source  of   European  culture,    114. 

Mugheir,     See  Ur. 

Muir,  Sir  W.,  on  the  traditionals  about  M'ahommet,   30. 

Muir  Glacier,  Alaska,  317;   retreat  of,  204  f. 

Muir  Inlet,   glaciation  in,   204. 

Murray,   explorations  in   Crete,   31. 

Nabonidus,    cylinder   of,    40;    his   conclusions    not    to   be    dis- 
credited,  499. 
Nampa,  Idaho,  geology  of,  266  f.,  275,  277. 
Nampa   image,  265  fi^.,  288. 


Index  541 

Napoleon  on   the   pyramids,  48. 

Naram-Sin,   40,  41,   43,   44,  46. 

Nations,  table  of,  466  ti. 

Neanderthal   skull,    321,    328,    389  f. 

Neckar   River,    304. 

Negroes,    distribution    of,    353  f.;    hair   of,    iii. 

Neolithic   man,   brain   of,   397. 

New  Jersey,  subsidence  of  the  coast  of,  488. 

New   Siberian   Islands,   365. 

Newark,   Ohio,    embankments    at,    143. 

Newcomerstown    palaeolith,    226,    228. 

Newton,   Sir  Isaac,  406. 

Niagara  Falls,  a  glacial  chronometer,   176  ff. 

Nile  River,  367  f. 

Nile  Valley,  date  of  man's  history  in,  494;   early  history  In, 

33  f-,    47  ff. 
Nippur,   excavations   at,  43  f. 
Noye  River,   305. 

Obi  Valley,   prehistoric  remains   in,   361. 
Ohio   Valley,   mounds    in,    141  ff. 
Omaha,   Neb.,   human  bones  found   at,  235. 
Otta,    discoveries    at,    335  f. 
Oxen,    distribution    of,    349. 

Pacific   coast,    animals   of,    287  f. 
Palaeolithic    implements,    classification    of,    324  ff. 
Palaeolithic    man,    art   of,    360,    361. 
Patagonia,    effect   of    missions    in,   432. 
Patinated  surface,  a  test  of  age,  524  f. 
Pawnees,   distribution   of,    138. 

Penck,   Albrecht,   on    the   geolog>'    and    date   of    the    cave    de- 
posits   in    Switzerland,    314  f. 
Pengelly,    Mr.,   explores    a   cave   at   Brixham,    Eng.,    318. 
Persian    Gulf,   mentioned,   72. 
Perthes,    Boucher    de,    palasoHthic    discoveries    of,    291. 


542 


I  ndex 


Phoenicians,   72. 

Pithecanthropus     erectus,     described     and     discussed,     393  f.; 

literature    on,    519  f- 
Plants,   distribution   of,   427  f. 
Pleistocene   climate,   364  f. 
Plum    Creek,   a   glacial   chronometer,   182  ff. 
Polynesia,   effect  of  the   Bible  in,  431. 

Pouchet,    M.,   on   the   discoveries    in   the    Somme    Valley,    291. 
Powers,    Stephen,   on    the   languages   of    California,    84. 
Prestwich,    Sir    Joseph,    291 ;    on    characteristics    cf    eoliths, 

337  f.;    on    length    of    the    Glacial    epoch,    197,   491  f. 
Primates,    original    home   of,    348. 
Prisse   Papyrus,    51  f. 
Ptah-Hotep's   Treatise   on    Morals,    51  if. 
Pumpelly,   Raphael,    excavations   by,   59  if. ;    on   dissolution   of 

limestone    in    Missouri,    207 ;    on    the    oxidation    of    the 

Kansan    deposits,    206. 
Putnam,  F.  W.,  on  the  Calaveras  skull,  264;   on  the   Nampa 

image,  267,  271. 
Puy   Courny,    France,   chipped    flints    at,    336  f. 

■  Quatrefages  on  clipped  flints  at  Puy  Courny,  337;  quoted 
on  a  common  center  for  the  origin  of  man,  441  ;  on 
Asia   as  the  original    home   of   man,   353  f. 

Raccoon    Creek,   a    glacial   chronometer,    180  f. 

Rames,  J.  B.,  discovers  chipped   flints   at  Puy   Courny,   336. 

Reclus  on   the   mammoth   of   Siberia,   361. 

Red   River   cf   the   North,    187. 

Reinach,    Salomon,    on    the    perfection    of    Aurignacian    art, 

514. 
Reindeer,    distribution   of,    344  f. 
Rhine    River,    303. 

Ribeiro,  discoveries  by,   at   Otta,   335  f. 
Rigillout,    Dr.,    palaeolithic    discoveries    of,    291. 
Ripley,   William  Z.,   quoted  on   the   anthropological   history  of 


Ind( 


543 


Northeastern  Europe,  120  ff. ;  rn  the  Cro-Magnon  race, 
115  f.;  on  the  hair  of  tlie  negro,  m;  nn  the  preva- 
lence of  broad-headed  races  in  Central  Eurf)pe,  113; 
on   the    source   of   early   European   culture,    127. 

Rocky    Mountains,    21,    22. 

Romance    languages,    88  ff. 

Romanes,  C^eorge  J.,  on  requisites  to  make  dogs  and  par- 
rots equal  the  lower  races  of  men,  430;  on  the  differ- 
ence between  man  and  an  animal,  421 ;  on  the  intel- 
lectual development  of  animals,  417  ff. ;  quoted  on  the 
growth   of   the   human   mind,   420. 

Riitimeyer  finds   bones  of  the  cave  bear   at   Wildkirchli,   314. 

Russell,  I.  C,  quoted  on  the  recentness  of  the  withdrawal 
cf   glacial    ice,    194. 

Rutot,  A.,  discovers  eoliths  in  Belgium,  338;  on  chipped 
flints  at  Puy  Courny,  327;  reports  implements  at  He- 
lin,   311. 

St.    Anthony,    Falls   of,    a    glacial   chronometer,    179. 

St.    Louis,    Mo.,   mound   near,    142. 

St.  Mansui,  skull  of,   390. 

Saint-Gaudens,    discoveries    near,    115. 

Samaritan    Pentateuch   version    of    Gen.    v.    and    xi.,    461  ff 

Samarkand,    59. 

Sanskrit,  502  f. 

Sargon,  40  f.,  42,  44,  46,  499  f. 

Scheil,    Vincent,    discovers    a    Babylonian   tablet,   499. 

Schleicher    represents    a    Chinese    sentence    in    English,    79. 

Schmerling,    Dr.,   discovers   skull    at   Engis,    320. 

Schmidt,  Professor,  on  glaciation  of  the  Yablonoi  Mount- 
ains,   357. 

Schoetensack,  Professor,  discovers  human  jaw  at  Mauer, 
309. 

Seine   River,    303,   304. 

Semitic    languages,    71,    74  ff.,    85. 

Septuagint   version   of   Gtn.   v.    and   xi.,   461  ff. 


544  Index 

Serpent   mounds,    148  f. 

Sex,    origin    of,    439  f. 

Shell   heaps.     See  Kitchen   Middens. 

Shoshones,    distribution    of,     139. 

Siberia,    geology    of,    356  f.;     palaeolithic    implements    found 

in,   313  f. 
Sierra    Nevada   Mountains,    geology   of,   283 ;    trees   of,    286  f. 
Sinclair,  William  J.,   discredits  the   Calaveras  skull,   264  f. 
Sioux,   distribution   of,   138. 

Slater,   George,   on  the   geology  of  Ipswich,  Eng.,  299. 
Slavs,   skulls  of,    119. 
Snake   River,    253,   273 ;    line   of    migration    of    Indian   tribes, 

136  f. 
Snell,   Dr.,   finds   relics  under  Table  Mountain,  256. 
SoUas,  W.  J.,  on  the  classification  of  palaeolithic  implements, 

325  ff.;    on    the    skulls    of    glacial    man,    391;    quoted    on 

eoliths,   340  ff. 
Solutrian   stage  of  the   palaeolithic   period,   332  f. 
Somme  River,   geology   of,   292  f.,   300  f.,   304  ff. 
Soul,   origin  of  the,   435. 
South    America,    glaciers    in,    217;    origin    of    inhabitants    of, 

140  f. ;   prehistoric  man  in,   247  ff. 
Southern    Hemisphere,    glaciation    of,    216  f.,    247  ff. 
Species,   origin   of,   411  ff.;    variations   of,   372,    373  ff-,    399  ff- 
Spencer,   Herbert,   and   "the  survival   of  the  fittest,"    376  f. 
Spy,    Man   of,    321  ff.,    328,    389  f. 
Stadling  on  the  mammoth  of   Siberia,   361. 
Stanislaus   River,    254,    284,    285. 
Steenstrup  on  the   date  of  the  stone  age,   107. 
Stevens,    Oliver    W.,    discovers    marble    bead    under    Table 

Mountain,    258. 
Strabo  on   Hyrcania,   355  f. 

Strepyan    stage    of    the    palaeolithic    period,    325. 
Sturge,  W.  Allen,  on  the  age  of  palaeolithic  implements,  525  f. 
Sumerians,  81 ;  cities  of  the,  39. 
Sweden,    kitchen    middens    of,    105  f. 


Index  545 

Switzerland,    lake   dwellinjis   of,    107  ff. 

Syr   Daria,   the,   367. 

Table    Mountain,   254  f.;    age   of,    285;    relics    from,    255  f. 

Tait,   estimates   of   geological   time,   497. 

Talmatschow     and     Herz     discover     a     perfect     specimen     of 

mammoth,    362. 
Tamils   related   to   American   Indians,   84,    131,   i33- 
Tapirs,    original    home    of,    349. 
Tarr,   Ralph    S.,   on   oxidatir.n   of   the   Kansan    deposits,    206; 

on   rate  of  melting  of   glacial   ice,   167,  245. 
Telloh,   discoveries   at,  45. 
Terrace   epoch,   the,   218  f. 
Terraces,    24  ff.,    167,    181,    188,    218  ff.,    226,    290,    292,    293, 

296,  472. 
Tertiary    man,    supposed    evidence    of,    chapter    on,    pp.    334" 

342. 
Tertiary    period,    characteristics    of,    334,    485  f-i    climate    of, 

485;    elevation    of    land    at    the    close    of,    168  ff.,    301  ff., 

343  ff.,    486,   488  f. 
Thames   River,    295  f.,    303,    304- 
Thenay,    France,    discoveries    at,    335. 
Thucydides,  .mentioned,    31. 
Tian    Shan    Mountains,    368;    glaciers   of   the,    358;    moraines 

of  the,   359  f. 
Tiele   assumes   two   Amrams,   452  f. 
Timur   the    Tartar,    59,    353. 
Todd,  J.  E.,  on  volcanic  ash,   512. 
Toll,   Baron,   on   the   stagnant   ice   of   Siberia,   357  f- 
Topinard  on  the  skulls  of  ancient  and  modern  men,  397. 
Toronto,    Can.,    interglacial    episode    at,   212  f. 
Tracy,   Charles,   reports  terrace   at   Samsun,  472. 
Tradition,   value   of,    29  f. 
Trebizond,   Turkey,    old   shore   line    at,    472. 
Trenton,   N.    J.,    geology-   of,   219  f. 
Trojan   War,   date   of,    31. 
Troy,  mentioned,  33. 


546  Index 

Trumbull,    Mr.,    on    compounds    in    Indian    languages,    82. 
Tschernyschev,     Professor,     on     glaciation     of     the     Stanovoi 

Mountains,    357. 
Tschudi,  Baron   von,  on   languages   in   South   America,   99. 
Turkestan,    ancient    religion   of,    63 ;    antiquity   cf   civilization 

in,   56flF. ;   temperature  of,   370. 
Turner   mounds,    146,    148. 
Tylor,    A.,   on   the    Somme    gravel    deposits,    306. 

Upham,  Warren,  estimates  of  Post-Tertiary  time,  8 ;  on 
Lake  Agassiz,  188  ff.;  on  preglacial  elevation  of  Eu- 
rope, 301;  on  the  loess  deposits  at  Lansing,  Kan.,  235; 
on    the    rate    cf    post-glacial    erosion,    187. 

Ur,   39,  40. 

Venus  impudica,  269,   514. 

Vezere    Valley,    discoveries    in,    115. 

Village    Indians,    139  f.,    149  f. 

Virchcw    on    cranial    capacity    of    Negritos    and    inhabitants 

of   New    Britain,    395. 
Volcanic   ash,   241,   512  f. 
Volk,  Ernest,   palaeolithic  discoveries  at  Trenton.,   N.  J.,  224  f. 

Walcott,   Charles   D.,  on   limits  of   geological   time,  479,  497. 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,  estimates  of  geological  time,  479; 
on  migration  of  bears,  348 ;  on  the  foresight  shown  in 
man's  physical  structure,  405 ;  quoted  on  the  remote- 
ness of  the  divergence  between  man  and  apes,  387; 
on   variations    in    skulls    of   orangoutangs,   402. 

Warren,  S.  Hazzledine,  on  method  of  formation  of  eoliths, 
338  f. 

Washington,    George,    influence    of,    37. 

Watson,  Miss  E.  H.,  on  a  language  invented  by  children, 
92  f. 

Wheeling,    W.    Va.,    mounds    near,    142  f. 


Index  S47 

W'hitaker,   \\ .,  on   the   geology  of  Ipswich,   Eng.,   298  f. 

Whitney,  J.  1^.,  investigates  the  discoveries  at  Talile 
Mountain,   257  f.;    the  Calaveras   skull,  263. 

Whitney,  W.  D.,  on  the  origin  of  language,  505  f. ;  (junted 
on    the   American    languages,    81,    83. 

WHiittlesey,    Col.,    on    signal    mounds,    151  f. 

Wildkirchli,   Switzerland,   geology   and   implements   of,    314  f. 

Williams,  E.  H.,  investigations  of,  sustain  the  moderate 
estimates   of   glacial   time,  214  ff. 

W^illiams,    Henry    S.,   estimates   of   geological    time,    8. 

Willoughby    Island,    glaciation    on,    204. 

Winchell,    Alexander,    on    the    Quaternary    lava    flows,    241. 

Winchell,  N,  H.,  estimates  of  geological  time,  8 ;  on  the 
loess  deposits  at  Lansing,  Kan.,  235;  palaeolithic  dis- 
coveries at  Little  Falls,  Minn.,  228  f. ;  study  of  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony,  179;  of  artifacts  found  in  Kansas,  524  f. 

Winckler,  on  the  date  of  Babylonian  civilization,  499 ; 
quoted    on    Babylonian    art,    46. 

Wisconsin,    mounds    in,    148. 

Wisconsin   deposits,  210  ff. 

Women,    brains    of,    397, 

Wookey,    Hole,    Eng.,    discoveries    in    cave    at,    319. 

Wright,    S.    G.,   on   the   Ojibway   word    for    father,    81  f. 

W^ijrm    glacial    episode,    316. 

Yaho,    dynasty   of,    30. 


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Melvin   G.   Kyle,   W.   H.   Griffith  Thomas 
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ence of  Ju'^isp-udcnce  as  Administered  To-day  in  Courts  of  Justice 

By  FRANCIS  J.  LAMB,  Attorney  and  Counsellor  at  Law 
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skeptic."— Prof.  W^illiam  Greene,  Jr.,  Princeton  Theological 
Review. 

THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 

Being   a   Consideration  of  the  Homilelic  Value  of  the  Biblical  View  of 

the  Nature  of  that  Person 

By    EDW^ARD    H.    MERRELL,    D.D.,    LL.D. 

Lately   President    and    Professor   of   Philosophy    in   Ripon 

College 
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PUBLICATIONS  OF  BIBLIOTHECA  SACRA  COMPANY 
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PENTATEUCHAL  STUDIES 

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The  interest  of  these  works  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
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of  his  ancient  Scriptures,  yet  on  lines  most  of  which  a 
Christian  can  heartily  appropriate;  further,  that  the  writer 
is  a  layman  of  highly  trained  mind  in  his  own  legal  pro- 
fession, to  whom  questions  of  law  and  evidence  present  a 
more  familiar  aspect  than  they  do  to  the  theologian;  fur- 
ther still,  that  he  is  a  man  of  large  scholarly  equipment,  a 
skilled  Hebraist,  well  versed  in  the  critical  literature  of  the 
day,  English,  Continental,  and  American,  familiar  as  few- 
are  with  Septuagint,  Samaritan,  and  othei  version  lore,  and 
capable  of  wielding  a  vigorous,  argumentative  pen.  There 
is  nothing  hackneyed  in  Mr.  Wiener's  style  of  argument.  If 
conservative,  he  is  conservative  on  his  own  lines;  is  bold, 
daring,  ingenious,  fertile  in  suggestion;  a  writer  who, 
whether  one  always  agrees  with  him  or  not,  invariably  gives 
his  readers  something  worth  thinking  about." — Rev.  Pro- 
fessor James  Orr,  D.D.,  in  the  British    Weekly. 

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PUBLICATIONS  UF  HlBLlUTHECA  SACRA  COMPANY 

The  Deciding  Voice  of  the  Monuments  in  BibHcal 

Criticism 

by  MELVIN  GROVE  KYLE.  D  D..  LL.D. 

Lecturer  on  Biblical    Archaeology  in  Xenia  Theological  Seminary,  Ar- 
chaeological Editor  of  th  t  Sunday  School  Times,  etc. 

This  volume  is  the  ir.ost  thorouiih  discussion  of  the 
\'alue  of  Arch;i'olou;ical  ?2vidence  in  Criticism  of  the 
Bible  yet  to  appear.  It  is  the  result  of  profound  stud}' 
by  one  tor  many  years  engaged  in  actual  research 
work  in  Bible  lands. 

The  volume  is  prefaced  by  an  introduction  by  Pro- 
fessor James  Orr,  D.D.  The  work  of  the  author  is 
divided  into  three  parts.  Part  I.  describes  the  func- 
tion of  archaeology  in  criticism,  showing,  in  four 
chapters,  that  only  archaeology  is  bringing  forth  new 
facts  on  the  questions  raised  by  criticism.  Part  II., 
in  ten  chapters,  gives  the  histor}'  of  the  testing  of 
critical  theories  by  archaeological  facts.  The  treat- 
ment of  this  portion  of  the  subject,  though  concise,  is 
well-nigh  exhaustive.  Part  III.,  in  seven  chapters, 
presents  the  progress  of  archreological  research  in  test- 
ing the  Biblical  narrative  and  in  settling-  questions 
raised  by  criticism. 

"  I  have  read  Dr.  Kyle's  '  Deciding  Voice  of  the 
Monuments  in  Biblical  Criticism  '  with  considerable 
care.  ...  I  do  rot  know  of  any  book  that  pretends  to 
fill  the  place  which  this  wnll  occupy.  ...  I  most  heart- 
ily commend  it  to  all." — Professor  William  A.  Free- 
mantle,   Temple   University,    Philadelphia,    Pa. 

325  pages,  8vo,  cloth.      $1.50,  net;   postage,   15  cents 

Address  BIBLIOTHECA  SACRA  COMPANY,  Oberlin,  Ohio 


1974 

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